The lawsuit asks the court to prevent the state from certifying the election, pending an investigation to determine how many votes for teacher Dan Sullivan were actually meant for the current Republican senator.
President Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to file a lawsuit to block the certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate race if the Republican incumbent loses the election.
According to The Guardian, the Justice Department submitted a legal filing in relation to the race less than two weeks before it’s scheduled to commence. In court documents, government attorneys argued that their could be “voter confusion” over the presence of two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the ballot. Republicans believe that this could take votes away from the current incumbent, providing an advantage to Democratic nominee Mary Peltota.
The Guardian notes that Peltota and Sen. Sullivan are currently in a dead heat.
But another candidate, a schoolteacher named Dan J. Sullivan who is running as a Republican, will also appear on the November ballot. The Justice Department believes that this Sullivan’s candidacy was designed to “benefit the Peltota campaign by reducing the number of votes for” the incumbent senator.
“There is a substantial likelihood that a certification of the election will reflect an electoral process that lacked integrity,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit asks the court to prevent the state from certifying the election, pending an investigation to determine how many votes for teacher Dan Sullivan were actually meant for the current Republican senator.
Peltota, in response, has characterized the lawsuit as “just flagrant, flagrant corruption.” Speaking to the press, she said that the filing is “another diversion from the issue that Alaskans want to talk about, which is affordability.”
Sullivan, she said, is working the legal system to his advantage by “using his connections in Washington, D.C., to manipulate the situation.”
“I am very concerned about Alaskans’ voices not being heard,” Peltota said.
Democratic officials say that the lawsuit indicates that President Donald Trump has become increasingly worried about his party’s prospects in the upcoming midterm.
“Donald Trump knows that Dan Sullivan is going to lose the election, so now his Department of Justice is filing a sham lawsuit to overturn the will of Alaska voters and steal an election when he loses,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee executive director Devan Barber told The Associated Press.
In a statement Friday, the Justice Department reasserted its argument that the second Sullivan’s candidacy is a Democratic attempt at election interference.
“The Justice Department, consistent with the National Voter Registration Act enacted by Congress, is taking the necessary steps to ensure that this frivolous candidacy does not undermine the integrity of Alaska’s election or the will of its voters,” the Justice Department said.
Sources
‘Should fail on the merits’: DOJ’s Alaska gambit is likely to go nowhere
Trump says he ordered DoJ to file lawsuit to block Alaska Senate results certification
Trump says he ordered the Justice Department’s lawsuit over Alaska’s US Senate race
