DOJ pushes to isolate Alaska ballots in Peltola probe

The Department of Justice (DOJ) pushed to isolate some Alaska ballots as part of a probe into whether the presence of two candidates with the same name could confuse voters in the state, a Friday court filing shows.

The investigation centers around reporting by The New York Times that Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign recruited a man with the same name as her Republican opponent, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), to enter Alaska’s Senate race and potentially confuse voters. Peltola’s campaign has denied any involvement.

Now, the DOJ is requesting any ballots which rank Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., the other candidate, to be separated out as part of the investigation.

“There is a substantial risk that Mr. Sullivan’s sham candidacy will mislead voters and ultimately result in an electoral process that lacks integrity,” the court filing reads. “To guard against this danger, the United States seeks an order directing Defendants to preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan is denoted as the incumbent and a registered Republican on the ballot. President Trump claimed that Alaska voters “don’t know what incumbent means,” while some Alaska voters who spoke to CNN said that there is no confusion, and that the controversy may not impact their vote.

The department is investigating whether the alleged ballot stacking effort broke the law, and the U.S. attorney on the case confirmed that there has been a “surge of law enforcement” to Alaska as part of the investigation.

The DOJ had previously sued to block certification of the Alaska Senate race if the Sen. Sullivan loses, a move which legal and election experts said had no basis in court.

Scott Kendall, an Alaska lawyer and former GOP operative, previously told The Hill that if Peltola’s campaign did engage in ballot stacking, the move would be wrong, but not in violation of the law.

“These allegations don’t make the Department of Justice’s case a better case,” Kendall said. “There’s no basis for this lawsuit.”

With just a few days remaining until the election, the DOJ asked the judge to expedite their request and segregate the ballots prior to the election.

“These modest precautionary measures will be impossible after Election Day, so there is good cause for expedited consideration,” the court filing reads.

Alaska, given its size and large rural population, is a primarily vote-by-mail state, thus ballots can take several days to arrive after the election.

Elections in the state also utilize ranked choice voting, which allows voters to rank their preferences, and votes are reallocated to other candidates should no one receive a majority of the vote in the first round. That tabulation does not take place until more than two weeks after Election Day, once all mail-in ballots have been received.

Peltola is still a slight favorite to win the Senate race, according to nonpartisan election forecaster Decision Desk HQ, a partner of The Hill, which gives her a 60 percent chance of victory.