ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Trump administration has sued to stop Alaska’s U.S. Senate election from being certified if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola, CBS News reported Friday.
Four candidates are on the ranked-choice ballot: the senator, Peltola, Gerald Heikes and a teacher named Daniel J. Sullivan. The Justice Department argues that if the incumbent loses because some voters mistakenly marked the other Sullivan, the result should not stand.
In its filing, the department alleged the second Sullivan deliberately ran under the same ballot name and party label to confuse voters, which it said could divert votes and help Peltola.
A Peltola campaign spokesperson, Harry Child, called the lawsuit “a despicable political threat to overturn an election” and said the campaign would fight to protect Alaskans’ votes.
The case is one of several pre-election legal actions by the Justice Department ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
Sources: CBS News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: James Brooks / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
