Obama-Appointed Judge Dismisses DOJ Lawsuit Seeking to Delay Certification in Alaska Senate Race Over ‘Decoy Dan’ Ballot

A federal judge in Anchorage on Sunday dismissed the Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking to delay certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate election if Republican incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses and votes cast for a similarly named candidate would have altered the ranked-choice outcome under reallocation.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason, appointed by President Barack Obama, ruled that the United States lacked Article III standing because it failed to establish that its alleged injury was redressable by a court order. In a 20-page order issued two days before Election Day, Gleason wrote that the government “provides no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct a court-ordered unspecified ‘investigation’ of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy.”

She added that “the absence of any explanation from the United States as to how its requested relief could redress its alleged injury while simultaneously maintaining the secrecy of the ballot is telling.” Gleason further stated that requiring segregation of ballots so that federal law enforcement could investigate voters’ intent “is not a remedy that this Court can or should order as it clearly violate[s] Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot.” The court denied the Justice Department leave to amend the complaint, finding that further amendment would be futile, and closed the case.

The lawsuit, filed October 22 and later amended to incorporate details from an October 28 New York Times report, asked the court to enjoin certification if two conditions were met: Sen. Sullivan did not win, and reallocating every first-choice vote for Daniel J. Sullivan to the incumbent under Alaska’s ranked-choice system would have produced a different result. The government cited the National Voter Registration Act and argued that the presence of the second Sullivan created a substantial likelihood of confusing or misleading voters intending to support the incumbent.

A Justice Department spokesperson said after the ruling that “the court dismissed the case on procedural grounds but did not dispute the argument of the United States that Daniel J. Sullivan (a/k/a Decoy Dan) entered the race as a frivolous candidate to confuse voters.” The department stated that it plans to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and that “Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes.”

The New York Times reported that aides to Democratic nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee participated in an internal effort beginning in summer 2025 to identify and recruit an Alaskan named Dan Sullivan as a candidate. According to the report, which relied on interviews and documents, the goal of the “ballot composition project” was to place a second Sullivan on the ballot. Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC have denied involvement in any such recruitment. DSCC Executive Director Devan Barber called the court’s dismissal “a victory for democracy” and described the Justice Department action as an effort to subvert the election.

Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from Petersburg, appeared on the August 18 open primary ballot and finished third with 2.5 percent of the vote (4,107 ballots). The top four candidates advanced under Alaska’s system; after a fourth-place Democrat withdrew, Republican Gerald Heikes joined Peltola, Sen. Sullivan, and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the November 3 general-election ballot. The Alaska Supreme Court earlier upheld a lower-court ruling that kept Daniel J. Sullivan on the primary ballot after the Division of Elections had initially sought to remove him. On the general-election ballot, officials listed the incumbent as “Dan S. Sullivan (Registered Republican) Incumbent” and the other candidate as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” without a party designation.

The civil lawsuit dismissal does not affect separate investigations. The U.S. Attorney for Alaska has confirmed ongoing criminal and civil inquiries into Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy previously directed the Department of Public Safety to examine whether state election laws were violated in connection with the candidate’s placement on the ballot. President Donald Trump has publicly called for prosecution related to the matter.

Alaska uses ranked-choice voting in the general election. Under that system, voters rank candidates, and if no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the lowest vote-getter is eliminated and their voters’ next preferences are redistributed until one candidate exceeds 50 percent. The Senate race is among the most closely watched contests of the 2026 midterms, with control of the chamber potentially at stake. Early voting was already underway when the Justice Department filed its suit.