DOJ Sues to Block Alaska Senate Certification if Incumbent Sullivan Loses Over Ballot Name Confusion

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court in Alaska seeking to block state officials from certifying the results of the U.S. Senate race if Republican incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola.

The complaint contends that the candidacy of Daniel J. Sullivan—a retired teacher who has not previously run for office—was intended to mislead voters and reduce support for the senator. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward wrote that the sole purpose of the candidacy is to benefit the Peltola campaign. The department asked the court to bar certification if Sullivan does not win and if reallocating the other Sullivan’s votes under Alaska’s ranked-choice system would have produced a different result, pending an investigation into whether those votes were cast by mistake.

Alaska’s Division of Elections previously removed Daniel J. Sullivan from the primary ballot, determining his filing was not a good-faith candidacy but an effort to confuse or mislead voters. The Alaska Supreme Court overruled that decision and allowed him to appear as a Republican. The general-election ballot lists Sen. Dan Sullivan as the incumbent.

President Trump stated that he directed the department to file the suit. In a Truth Social post he called the dual candidacy ridiculous and described it as cheating and election interference. He has previously noted that even a small percentage of diverted votes could decide the race. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department did not coordinate with any campaign and that the litigation aims to preserve information so Alaskan officials can determine whether voters were confused. A DOJ spokesperson said the state’s elections office had already found the candidacy intended to mislead voters, and the department is acting under the National Voter Registration Act to protect election integrity.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason, an Obama appointee. Alaska uses ranked-choice voting; if no candidate reaches 50 percent, second-choice rankings are applied until a majority is reached. The race is rated a toss-up that could affect Senate control.