Feds Move to Freeze Alaska Vote Count, Sort Ballots

The U.S. Department of Justice, acting at President Donald Trump's direction, has asked a federal judge to halt certification of a possible Democratic win in Alaska's Senate race. On Friday, it went further, asking Judge Sharon L. Gleason to separate every ballot showing a vote for a second candidate named Dan Sullivan, so someone can decide whether voters were "fooled into wasting their votes." Alaska's own Republican-run attorney general's office, hardly a friend of the Democrats, called that request "both disturbing and impossible."

Who Has the Power

The state's reply came Saturday, one day ago, after Gleason set a Saturday deadline for arguments on whether to toss the suit without a hearing. Alaska told the court there is "no reason for this Court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any longer." The state added that there would be no way to sort the ballots as the Justice Department wants "without violating voter privacy."

The federal complaint demands that the judge block certification of a possible win by Democrat Mary Peltola until it's determined whether voters were confused by a second candidate sharing a name with her main rival, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. Election law experts have roundly criticized the filing.

The legal hook is thin. The administration argues that a preamble to the 1990s voter registration law makes it responsible for ensuring states maintain the "integrity" of federal elections. It says it's merely combating fraud by keeping the Democrat from being declared the winner in a race that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Who Gets Crushed

Not the candidates. The people with the most to lose are the voters whose ballots would be pulled apart and examined. The American Civil Liberties Union put it plainly in its filing, asking the court to imagine "the federal executive" plucking "a few words like 'election integrity' from some statutory preamble" and then "subjecting voters to a law-enforcement-led inquest about who they 'really' supported."

That inquest is already underway. The Department of Justice has issued a wave of subpoenas and announced a criminal investigation, as the administration has stepped up its use of its legal powers to support Trump's side in the midterm election. Trump also demanded that Peltola be prosecuted after The New York Times reported that internal texts and posts appear to show her campaign was involved in recruiting the second Sullivan, a retired school teacher in the remote fishing village of Petersburg, onto the ballot. Peltola has denied involvement.

The Times report rested on interviews with her former campaign manager, texts, and contributions from a political group backing Peltola to an out-of-state Democratic consultant who recruited the second Sullivan. Both parties, in other words, treated a retired teacher's name as a campaign asset.

What They're Calling "Order"

Alaska's Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, announced a state probe after the Times story and condemned the placement of the second Sullivan on the ballot. Yet the Alaska Supreme Court ruled this summer that the second candidate met every legal requirement to stay on. The state's filing says the new revelations about Peltola's campaign don't change the fact that he's legally on the ballot. "Not every wrong can be righted in federal court," the state wrote.

The state also noted that officials "carefully designed the ballot to minimize voter confusion": the senator is listed as a Republican and the incumbent, while the other appears simply as "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." The state asked for dismissal with prejudice so it can conduct ballot counting and certification "free from unwarranted federal interference."

Peltola's campaign and voting rights groups have also urged Gleason to dismiss the case, an unusual alignment with Alaska state officials.

The ACLU asked whether this world is "what the Framers wanted or precisely what they most feared." Judge Gleason now decides whether to dismiss the suit without a hearing.