Alaska Seeks Dismissal of Federal Suit Against Senate Race Results

State Attorneys Push Back Against Federal Demands in Alaska Senate Race

Alaska state attorneys have slammed a Trump administration lawsuit aiming to possibly block the certification of the U.S. Senate race, calling the Justice Department’s demands “inappropriate and not even possible given Alaska voters’ vital right to ballot secrecy.”

Representing the state, Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher, and the state election and ballot-counting review boards, attorneys from the Alaska Department of Law filed a 14-page motion asking U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason to dismiss the federal suit.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit, filed at the direction of President Donald Trump, seeks to stop Alaska officials from certifying the results of the race if Republican incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses his reelection bid. It also called for an investigation into whether votes cast for challenger Dan J. Sullivan, a retired educator from Petersburg who also sought to run as a Republican, were intended for the incumbent instead. Judge Gleason granted permission for the case to be considered on an expedited basis, raising the possibility of a ruling before Election Day.

The Impossibility of Segregating Secret Ballots

At the heart of the latest federal filing is a demand to segregate all ballots showing votes for the Petersburg Sullivan. State attorneys called the request unworkable, pointing directly to the foundational mechanics of democratic elections.

Q-If [Mary Peltola] were to win, and if she's still under investigation, would you certify the election?Gov. Dunleavy- "If we conclude there were things…that are illegal, we will act on that. And that may in fact impact whether somebody is seated in the U.S. Senate" pic.twitter.com/T3npq6L0xk

— https://x.com/JoeKhalilTV/status/2115938030104330347

“The only way to tell if a voter who ranked Daniel J. meant to rank Dan S. instead would be to match the voter with her ballot and ask her, but this is impossible because ballots are not marked with voter names and are commingled to protect ballot secrecy,” the state’s motion said.

The filing emphasized that the secret ballot is itself a critical component of the integrity of the electoral process. Furthermore, the state’s election procedures require the Division of Elections to preserve ballots from elections for 22 months as a matter of policy, regardless of a court order.

The legal friction follows reporting in The New York Times that Peltola’s campaign staff and a national Democratic group had allegedly helped recruit the Petersburg Sullivan to run as a potential spoiler, though the campaign has long denied any such effort. The allegations triggered criminal probes launched by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and federal investigators, alongside a surge of federal investigators to Alaska.

Standing, Precedent, and the Question of Frivolous Candidacies

The state’s Saturday filing takes direct aim at the legal underpinnings of the federal government’s argument, which relies exclusively on the National Voter Registration Act, a law governing voter registration passed in the 1990s. State attorneys argued that the federal government “cannot rescue its (National Voter Registration Act) claim by stringing together quotes from irrelevant cases rather than discussing the NVRA.”

To illustrate the broader implications of the federal argument, the state pointed to another contest on the ballot: the U.S. House race featuring Democrat Eric Hafner. He is running against incumbent Republican Rep. Nick Begich and independent candidate Bill Hill, a commercial fisherman and retired educator from Bristol Bay. “Perhaps ‘frivolous’ candidacies are something that Congress could address with a federal statute, but it has not done so,” the state’s motion said. “The problem would not stop at Daniel J. The ballot also includes Eric Hafner as a candidate for U.S. House even though he is ‘incarcerated in federal prison in New York’ and ‘not scheduled for release until 2036.’”

Alaska urges federal judge to toss suit that could pause election certification

National Republicans criticized the Petersburg Sullivan’s entry into the race when he filed at the end of May. Though Carol Beecher initially deemed him ineligible following complaints from the Alaska Republican Party and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a ruling by an Anchorage Superior Court judge determining that he was eligible to run for office.

The Division of Elections took unusual steps to distinguish the candidates on the ballot this year, listing the Petersburg challenger as “Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.” with no party affiliation, while the ballot refers to the senator as “Sullivan, Dan S. (Registered Republican) Incumbent.”

The state’s motion made clear where it stands regarding the candidates: “The Division is not defending either Daniel J. or the Peltola campaign, nor is it ‘(t)urning a blind eye.’ The Division suspected Daniel J.’s motives from the start and wanted to keep him off the ballot. But Alaska law, as definitively interpreted by the Alaska Supreme Court, did not allow that.”

Diverging Views at the State Level

While the Alaska Department of Law maintains that the federal government lacks legal standing and that its lawsuit “has no legal basis,” Mike Dunleavy has signaled a different stance. Speaking to national news media, Dunleavy suggested that if the GOP incumbent narrowly loses, the state will “have to take a look at that.”

Dunleavy did not clarify whether the election will be certified if Peltola wins while investigations continue. “If we conclude there were things … that are illegal, we will act on that,” Dunleavy told News Nation, adding that such actions might impact whether somebody is seated in the U.S. Senate.

With voters heading to the polls to choose a new governor on Tuesday as Dunleavy is termed out from seeking reelection, the intersecting legal challenges continue to shadow the final hours of the campaign.