Justice Department pushes Alaska ballot scheme targeting Dan J. Sullivan rankings
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The Justice Department asked a federal judge to force Alaska election officials to isolate ballots that rank Senate candidate Dan J. Sullivan, claiming it wants to probe supposed voter confusion ahead of Election Day.
The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Friday for an order that would force Alaska election officials to preserve and separate all ballots that rank Senate candidate Dan J. Sullivan. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote that the move is supposedly needed to investigate whether the rankings came from voter confusion and insisted it must be acted on before Election Day.
The filing offered no real explanation of how the ballots would be reviewed or how confusion would be measured. Alaska uses ranked-choice voting for its four-candidate Senate race.
The request follows a New York Times report that Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign helped recruit Dan J. Sullivan, a former school teacher, to run against Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. Peltola has denied involvement. Woodward and U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman filed three additional motions seeking expedited disclosure of internal communications from Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as well as a preliminary injunction.
Heyman, speaking at a press conference, refused to discuss the specific crimes under investigation, citing the need to protect the integrity of the inquiry. He said recent reporting had driven a significant increase in law-enforcement resources in Alaska.
The Justice Department has issued dozens of subpoenas to the campaign offices of both Peltola and Dan J. Sullivan. President Donald Trump, who has urged legal action against the candidates, said he does not know whether Sen. Dan S. Sullivan can win under the current ballot configuration and described the situation as “total fraud.”
In a separate interview, Sen. Dan S. Sullivan advised supporters on how to rank candidates on the ballot, urging voters to place him first, a second Republican candidate second, and to leave the Democratic candidate unranked.