The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Friday to stop Alaska from certifying the winner of the state’s Senate election if Mary Peltola (D) unseats Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in a close race.
It’s the first instance of the DOJ intervening to block the certification of a Senate race to help a losing Republican. In this case, it’s entirely preemptive: the election has not happened yet, though polls project a tight race in Alaska and a series of tight Senate races that could result in a close majority for whichever party wins.
Here, the DOJ argues that the presence of a presumed spoiler candidate on the ballot, Daniel J. Sullivan, will taint the race by confusing voters who intended to vote for the incumbent Republican senator, Daniel S. Sullivan. It demands that the judge block any certification until an investigation can “determine whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan were meant to be cast for Senator Sullivan.”
“Given the substantial likelihood that the inclusion of Daniel J. Sullivan will confuse or mislead voters looking to cast a vote for Senator Sullivan, and thus distort the will of Alaskan voters, there is a substantial likelihood that a certification of the election will reflect an electoral process that lacked integrity,” the lawsuit reads.
Associate Attorney General Stan Woodward, a former attorney for January 6 defendants and one of Trump’s co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago records case, signed the filing.
The suit marks the first instance of the DOJ doing what many people feared: attempting to intervene in the outcome of an election by trying to block states from certifying a given race. As Republicans have fallen further behind in polling in the House of Representatives, attention has turned from that chamber to the Senate as a potential place where the administration might try to interfere in order to hold on to the GOP majority.
The lawsuit reflects how deeply the White House has politicized the DOJ during the second Trump administration. In 2020, after losing the 2020 election, Trump pushed for the DOJ to intervene in states that he had lost as part of a bid to block the certification of Biden’s win. One DOJ appointee who tried to help in that effort, Jeff Clark, spent years under investigation for his role in the effort; the D.C. bar’s board of professional responsibility recommended that he be disbarred. Allies of the president also organized competing slates of electors in those states, hoping Congress would choose to hand the election to Trump.
Experts don’t see the Alaska case going very far. Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame, described the legal argument “as one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen” in a blog post.
“But the legal claim is so absurdly thin, there’s essentially no likelihood of success,” he wrote, adding later: “In short, like many Department letters over the last few years, it is designed to win the press release rather than the litigation. This one simply takes the form of a complaint.”
This is entirely up to the voters in the State of Alaska to do the right thing and not to vote for either of the Dans.
If she comes up with more than 50% of the total vote, the case gets tossed, no matter how many times they demand a recount.
Over a week to go until Election Day and already we’re getting drenched in flop sweat.
If the electorate being idiots and voting for the “wrong” candidate was illegal, we’d never have a GQP winner of an election again..
The State of Alaska already dealt with this, and they are the ones that get to determine how their election is run. This has happened in the past, and it is always the case that the choice of the voters is the determinant in the end. Politicians can’t help having the same name, and trying to disqualify one based on their name would violate the Constitutional requirements for holding an office (someone can’t be ruled ineligible just because of their name).
This case is just meant to cause more drama. It perhaps might swing a few votes back to Sen. Sullivan from people who somehow don’t realize they are two different people. If Sullivan loses, and then the SC tries to install him as senator because of “reasons” it’s going to be a very, very bad thing. Let’s hope Peltola wins easily so there isn’t any question about this lawsuit.
Even if her total exceeds the total of all Sullivans - they will demand a “Do-Over” … because the confusion caused MAGA voter performance anxiety!….and the sun got in their eyes …. Plus some somebody called a time out…