Judge to rule on Alaska U.S. Senate case
U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason plans to rule on a pivotal election case in Alaska by Wednesday.
Democrats in Alaska urged Gleason to strike down a lawsuit that would prevent certification of the state’s U.S. Senate race, one of the country’s closest.
On Oct. 22, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to block certification of the results in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race. Lawyers for the department cited the presence of Dan J. Sullivan, a school teacher, on the ballot.
Alaska uses ranked-choice voting in its elections. Incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Democratic candidate Mary Peltola are the top favorites in the Senate race. However, Dan J. Sullivan and Gerald Heikes also secured enough votes to move forward in the general election.
“Daniel J. Sullivan’s presence on the ballot threatens to mislead Alaskan citizens who want to vote for Senator Sullivan,” lawyers for the DOJ wrote. “For example, some supporters of Senator Sullivan likely will inadvertently vote for Daniel J. Sullivan. Other supporters of Senator Sullivan likely will be confused as to how to rank the three Republican candidates as to defeat Peltola.”
However, lawyers for Alaska’s Division of Elections argued that it took significant steps to mitigate confusion early in the election process. Alaska’s ballots are set to appear with middle initials of both candidates named “Dan Sullivan” a “Jr.” alongside Dan J. Sullivan’s name, an indicator that Dan S. Sullivan is the incumbent candidate and will not contain party affiliation for Dan J. Sullivan.
“Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system provides another solution: the voter can rank the Sullivans as his first and second choices,” lawyers for the Alaska Division of Elections wrote. “That way, if the voter’s first-ranked Sullivan is eliminated, his vote would transfer to the other Sullivan. The voter’s vote would not ‘be transferred to Peltola’ as the complaint asserts, unless the voter chose to rank Peltola as his next choice instead of the other Sullivan.”
Democrats associated with Mary Peltola’s campaign and officials at the Division of Elections accused the federal government of attempting to alter certification of election results if incumbent Sen. Sullivan does not win.
However, lawyers for the DOJ argued Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy was “frivolous,” and federal authorities had the ability to keep the results from being certified if he remained on the ballot.
“The only way to ‘assure that the winner [of the Alaska Senate seat] is the choice of a majority, or at least a strong plurality, of those voting,’ is to ensure that the certification is not impacted by Daniel J. Sullivan’s frivolous candidacy,” lawyers for the federal government wrote.
Lawyers for Alaska said the lawsuit would undermine election integrity and threaten the results of a fair electoral process. They pointed to the Justice Department’s call for investigating ballots after the process is over.
“It would require segregating ballots cast for Daniel J. and identifying them with the voters who cast them, so that those voters could later be interrogated about their intent. But that is not possible,” lawyers for Alaska wrote. “Like every state in the union, Alaska protects the secrecy of the ballot by law, and such an investigation would require violating that secrecy.”
U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason said she will issue a decision in the case by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
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