Justice Department sues to block Alaska Senate certification, citing duplicate candidate name
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit seeking to stop Alaska from certifying its Senate election results, arguing that a second candidate named Dan Sullivan could confuse voters and alter the outcome.
The Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday asking a judge to stop Alaska from certifying the Senate race if incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan loses. The filing argues that the presence of another candidate named Dan J. Sullivan on the ballot could mislead voters and be used to cast doubt on the election results.
Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said the second Sullivan’s candidacy could “confuse or mislead voters looking to cast a vote for Senator Sullivan and thus distort the will of Alaskan voters,” and claimed certification of the results could reflect a process lacking integrity.
President Donald Trump has called the second Sullivan’s candidacy a “scam” and said the administration is examining “powerful legal options” to keep him off the ballot, raising further concerns about political interference in the electoral process.
The second Sullivan, a former Alaska Independence Party member who registered as a Republican earlier this year and works for the U.S. Forest Service, denied the allegations, telling the Petersburg Pilot that he “wouldn't even know who to speak to” in Mary Peltola’s campaign. In an interview with Courthouse News, he said he hoped voters understand who they are voting for.
If the court grants the request, certification would be delayed pending an investigation into whether voter confusion occurred and what steps would be needed to address any impact on the election outcome.