Peltola campaign sues Alaska over rejected absentee ballot records

Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign is suing the state of Alaska to obtain access to records for absentee ballots that were rejected by the Alaska Division of Elections, a new court filing shows.

Peltola’s campaign said they previously requested records of the rejected ballots on multiple occasions but were denied access.

“Plaintiff cannot ensure that its voters’ lawful votes were properly counted without knowing whose absentee ballots were rejected or questioned, and why,” the lawsuit reads. “Each hour and each day that Defendants deny Plaintiff the requested records to which it is entitled costs Plaintiff the opportunity to help ensure that qualified voters have their ballots counted.”

Peltola currently leads Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) in the Alaska U.S. Senate race by just over 600 votes, but with approximately 30 percent of the vote still outstanding, according to The Hill’s partner Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ). No winner has been projected in the race as of Saturday morning.

The Division responded in a release on Friday, saying voters who have had their ballots rejected have not yet had access to the information, therefore, the campaign should not be able to have access yet either.

“Alaska’s constitution and laws do not require the Division to provide this information in the manner requested by the campaign. Releasing preliminary information in the manner sought by the lawsuit would create additional burdens during ballot processing and could delay the timely counting of votes,” the release said.

The Alaska Senate race has already been the subject of litigation after the Trump administration sued to block certification of the election if Sullivan loses, arguing that the presence of a candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. could confuse voters. A judge dismissed that lawsuit ahead of Election Day, but the administration vowed to appeal.

The vote count in Alaska will continue for several more days , as ballots in Alaska can arrive up to 15 days after the election if they came from outside the country, so long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

More votes in Alaska do not have to be reported until Nov. 10, but may be reported incrementally before then. Final votes must be reported by Nov. 18.

If no candidate has greater than 50 percent of the vote by that point — no candidate currently does — the state will run an instant runoff using ranked choice voting. The tabulation eliminates the last-place candidate and redistributes their voters’ second, third and fourth-choice preferences. The process repeats until a candidate has a majority.

If Peltola wins the Senate race, it would be the eighth flip for Democrats in the Senate after a strong performance on Tuesday night.

Votes are also still being counted in the Mississippi Senate contest where Democrat Scott Colom leads the incumbent GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.