ACLU, Common Cause file motion against DOJ over Alaska election certification block

Nonprofit watchdog group Common Cause, represented by attorneys from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has filed a motion to intervene in the Justice Department’s lawsuit over Alaska’s Senate election.

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that the presence of a candidate with the same name as incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) could give Democrat Mary Peltola an unfair advantage in the upcoming Senate election.

The motion brought by Common Cause and the ACLU aims to stop the DOJ “from blocking Alaska’s Senate election results,” according to a press release sent Saturday by Common Cause.

“Common Cause’s filing argues that DOJ’s attempt to interfere and disrupt Alaska’s election is baseless, and that the federal government has no authority to bring this case,” the release said.

“The Trump administration is trying to lay the groundwork to reject election results because they are desperate to control our elections,” said Virginia Kase Solomon, president and CEO of Common Cause in the release.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit, which President Trump has said he directed to be filed , claimed Daniel J. Sullivan entered the Senate race “as a Republican with the intention of misleading” the incumbent senator’s supporters.

“Should Alaska certify any electoral results tainted by the inclusion on the ballot of Daniel J. Sullivan … the State and its officers will fail in its obligation to protect the integrity of its election,” the filing reads.

In a social media post on Saturday, Attorney General Todd Blanche said with this lawsuit, the department is not trying to stop the certification of Alaska’s election, but is seeking “to ensure that after Alaskans cast their ballots, they are preserved in a manner so that only Alaska’s governing officials have the information necessary to make a determination as to whether Alaskan voters were confused or mislead.”

Saturday’s motion lists Alaska voters Risé Roy and Jan Jakub Grzeda and the League of Women Voters of Alaska along with Common Cause as the proposed intervenors.

“Proposed Intervenors have a strong interest in the certification of free and fair election results in the Alaska Senate contest,” the filing from the nonprofit organization read. “The relief the federal government seeks risks disenfranchising Alaska residents entirely.”