DOJ Requests Court Order to Isolate Alaska Ballots in Senate Race

The U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge on Friday to order Alaska election officials to set aside ballots ranking candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. The move comes as federal authorities confirm a criminal investigation into the Senate race, a step taken just days before the state’s ranked choice general election on Tuesday.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block certification of the race if incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses. In a separate filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney E. Bryan Wilson stated the government wants to preserve all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. to investigate potential voter confusion. The filing argues there is a substantial risk that the candidate’s presence on the ballot will mislead voters and compromise the integrity of the electoral process.

Alaska U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman told reporters in Anchorage that the criminal probe has been ongoing for several months. He said recent reporting by The New York Times, which suggested the Democratic campaign for former Rep. Mary Peltola helped recruit the candidate, triggered a significant increase in law enforcement resources in the state. Heyman declined to specify the potential crimes under investigation or name the targets but asked the public to provide tips to investigators.

The candidate, a retired teacher and boat dealership owner in Petersburg, shares a surname with the two-term incumbent. An FBI agent visited his business to determine if he had been misled by the candidacy. He told the Associated Press that he was not misled and that everybody in the area knows who the incumbent is. The candidate has long denied he was running at the behest of Democrats.

State attorneys challenged the request, noting that ballots are commingled in boxes on Election Day. They argued that separating ballots for one candidate without violating secrecy protections is difficult and that segregation would not reveal why specific voters chose that candidate. The state asked the judge to dismiss the case, pointing out that election officials already distinguished the two men on the ballot by listing the senator as Dan S. Sullivan and the challenger as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. with no party affiliation.

The timing of the federal announcements has drawn scrutiny. It is unusual for the Justice Department to publicly discuss a criminal probe in the weeks leading up to an election. President Donald Trump addressed the issue during a rally in Florida on Friday. He said he told the department to file the case and suggested that Peltola and the candidate should be prosecuted. Trump told U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was present, to make his own decision, and Blanche agreed.

Peltola responded at a campaign rally in Anchorage, saying she is deeply offended by accusations that she was involved in the other candidacy. She told KTUU that she has no idea if someone on her team was involved in recruiting the candidate. She referenced a former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, who was fired before the August primary, saying those people are gone for a good reason.

Federal prosecutors issued dozens of grand jury subpoenas and record preservation requests earlier this week. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered his own investigation into potential violations following the media reports. Meanwhile, the Alaska Democratic Party filed a separate lawsuit alleging that some rural in-person voting sites did not open as advertised.