Trump administration sues to block Alaska’s US Senate election result if Peltola wins

This article is developing and will be updated.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against the Alaska Division of Elections late Thursday, seeking to block the division from certifying the result of the state’s U.S. Senate election if the Democratic challenger, Mary Peltola, wins.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday in Florida that he ordered the lawsuit be filed.

“I’m the one that said, ‘do it,’” he said. 

Peltola is the leading opponent to incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, and polls show her with a small lead over Sullivan, but the race also includes two other candidates — Republicans Gerald Heikes of Palmer and Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg.

In the complaint, the Department of Justice claims that Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy is “frivolous,” and was intended solely to confuse voters and benefit Peltola. 

Until there is an investigation to determine the extent of that confusion, the Department of Justice argues, Alaska should not be permitted to certify the result of the ongoing Senate election.

Legal experts immediately dismissed the federal argument as bunk. 

‘A sad and scary sight’

Under the U.S. Constitution, states have authority over their own elections. The federal claim is based on the preamble to the National Voter Registration Act, which states in part that the law is intended “to protect the integrity of the electoral process.”

In an immediate analysis posted online, Notre Dame Law School election law professor Derek Muller said, “the legal argument is one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen.”

In addition to being poorly argued, it was poorly written, he said, noting that one paragraph is missing a verb that would ask the court to take action.

Libby Bakalar is a former Alaska state elections attorney who frequently speaks against the Trump administration. On social media Friday morning, she said the federal argument “is laughably bad, almost to the point of sanctionably frivolous. Watching MAGA on the ropes like this in court up here is a sad and scary sight.”

The case has been referred to Judge Sharon Gleason, an Obama appointee who is the most senior of the two judges in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.

Peltola or her campaign may intervene in suit

Reached by email Friday morning, Dan J. Sullivan declined immediate comment, saying the lawsuit came as a surprise and he was still analyzing it. 

The Beacon contacted the Division of Elections and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom early Friday morning but has not yet received a response.

A person affiliated with Sen. Sullivan’s campaign said Friday morning that he did not ask the Department of Justice to file the lawsuit and that he was surprised by the act. 

Nate Adams, campaign spokesman for Sullivan, said by email, “We’ll let the DOJ complaint run its course. Alaskans can tell the difference between a Democrat sideshow and Senator Sullivan’s strong record of delivering for Alaska, a record he’ll keep building on for the next six years.”

Harry Child, a spokesperson for Peltola’s campaign, replied to questions by text message and implied that the campaign may intervene in the lawsuit.

“This is a despicable political threat to overturn an election, designed by Senator Dan Sullivan’s allies to suppress the voices of Alaskans because Sullivan is terrified he’ll lose the seat that has allowed him to enrich himself at Alaskans’ expense for over a decade,” Child said. “We will fight to ensure every single eligible voter in Alaska can make their voice heard and that no bureaucrat or politician from the Lower 48 can interfere with our lawful, secure elections.”

Asked his opinion, Alaska Democratic Party chair Eric Croft said, “Dan Sullivan is scared he’ll lose and that’s why he’s looking to any corrupt, desperate method to win.”

Trump says he made the call to file the lawsuit

In numerous prior interviews, Dan J. Sullivan has said that his candidacy was motivated by dissatisfaction with Sen. Sullivan, and that he is not linked to the Democratic Party or Peltola’s campaign.

Democratic officials have said the same thing.

But that hasn’t stopped Trump and Sen. Sullivan — as well as other Republicans — from accusing both Peltola and Petersburg Sullivan of fraud.

Trump and other administration officials hinted throughout the summer and fall that they were working to bring a criminal case against Dan J. Sullivan. 

Thursday’s filing does not name him as a defendant. 

The listed attorneys for the Department of Justice are Stanley E. Woodward, an associate attorney general in Washington, D.C. and E. Bryan Wilson, an assistant U.S. attorney in Anchorage. 

Alaska U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman was at Trump’s rally in Wasilla this month.

“I told him — I just shook his hand, took a picture — I said I hope you’re going to make sure there’s no cheating, because any place you have rank(ed) choice, you have damn bad cheating. And we can’t let that happen. So, we’re going to defend the integrity of Alaska’s elections,” Trump said at the Oct. 13 event.

Review of primary election results indicates few voters were confused

Alaska’s state courts have already argued — and decided — Dan J. Sullivan’s eligibility as a candidate. In June, the Alaska Division of Elections struck him from the primary ballot, saying his candidacy was “for the purpose of confusing or misleading voters.”

He appealed that decision, and in late June, an Anchorage Superior Court judge overturned the division’s decision.

“The director’s assertion that Mr. Sullivan seeks to confuse or misguide voters is not supported by a preponderance of evidence,” wrote Judge Thomas Matthews in a 32-page analysis.

The state appealed, but the Alaska Supreme Court upheld the trial court’s decision on June 29. It has not yet published a full explanation of its decision. 

The state did not seek an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After that decision, Peltola, Dan J. Sullivan, Dan S. Sullivan and 13 other candidates appeared on the primary ballot in August. Peltola finished first, with 49.5% of the vote, followed by Dan S. Sullivan with 41.4% and Dan J. Sullivan with 2.5%. 

The fourth-place finisher, Democratic candidate David Leslie, withdrew from the election, an act that promoted Heikes into the final four with 1.1% of the vote.

A subsequent review of the results by the Anchorage Press found a large proportion of votes for Dan J. Sullivan came from left-leaning districts, indicating that Democratic-inclined voters — rather than confused Republicans — put the Petersburg man into the general election.

“I feel pretty vindicated that it seems to prove that there was very little, if any, voter confusion between the senator and myself,” Dan J. Sullivan told local radio station KFSK-FM after the result.