WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block Alaska from certifying its Senate election if Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola, pointing to potential voter confusion caused by a second candidate sharing his name.
President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday that he ordered the federal legal challenge, which was submitted late Thursday in federal court in Alaska just 11 days ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms. “I’m the one that said do it,” Trump told reporters as he arrived for a Florida campaign event, the Associated Press reported.
Dispute Over Ballot Names
The lawsuit seeks to delay certification of a Democratic victory pending a federal inquiry if the senator loses by a margin narrower than the vote total received by Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired elementary schoolteacher and former U.S. Forest Service employee from Petersburg, Alaska.
Republicans have alleged that the second Sullivan entered the race to siphon votes away from the incumbent senator, an accusation Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. has denied. State election administrators initially tried to remove him, but the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in June that he could stay on the general election ballot.
To distinguish between the two contenders, Alaska officials designed the ballot to list the incumbent as “Sullivan, Dan S (Registered Republican) Incumbent” and the challenger as “Sullivan, Daniel J Jr” without an affiliated party label, Al Jazeera reported. Peltola, who in 2022 became the first Alaska Native elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, finished first in Alaska’s nonpartisan August primary with 49.5 percent of the vote, while Sen. Dan Sullivan took approximately 41 percent.
Partisan Backlash and Ranked Choice Voting
Peltola strongly denounced the federal government’s intervention during an Anchorage forum on Friday, labeling the action “just flagrant, flagrant corruption in my opinion,” according to the Associated Press. She argued her opponent was attempting to influence the race through Washington allies instead of focusing on issues such as consumer affordability.
Alaska’s senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, also criticized the filing on social media, writing that “Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates” and asserting that the state had resolved the issue by making the names distinct on the ballot.
Legal scholars and political analysts have questioned both the legal footing and timing of the complaint. The Justice Department cited the National Voter Registration Act, arguing it holds authority to safeguard the integrity of federal elections. However, University of Notre Dame election law professor Derek Muller noted that the statute does not authorize the department to halt state certification. Muller told the Associated Press the action could soon be dismissed or rendered moot depending on the final margin.
Alaska also conducts elections under a ranked choice system, which allows voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference. Glenn Wright, a political science professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, told Al Jazeera that the voting method is designed to limit spoiler effects, as secondary choices can be redistributed during tabulation if no contender secures an outright majority in the initial round.
What Comes Next
No federal judge has issued an injunction halting certification, and the Justice Department holds no independent power to stop state officials from formalizing election outcomes. With Republicans currently controlling 53 seats in the 100-member Senate, the contest remains central to the fight for the Senate majority, leaving the final legal outcome dependent on both court rulings and the vote margins after Nov. 3.
