Judge Blocks DOJ Bid to Control Alaska Ballots

A federal judge on Sunday, Nov. 1, dismissed the Justice Department’s attempt to delay certification of Alaska’s Senate election and place ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan under federal scrutiny. The department said it would appeal. The people whose ballots the government wanted to segregate were Alaska voters; the judge said the plan offered no way to investigate their choices while preserving their right to vote in secret.

Ballots Under Federal Scrutiny

The lawsuit, which President Donald Trump said he ordered, was filed Oct. 22. It asked the court to block certification if Sen. Dan S. Sullivan lost but would have won if votes for Daniel J. Sullivan had instead gone to the incumbent. The Justice Department also wanted officials to segregate and preserve those ballots, then investigate whether voters had meant to choose the senator.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason said the government hadn’t explained how it could determine voters’ intent without violating ballot secrecy. “The absence of any explanation from the United States as to how its requested relief could redress its alleged injury while simultaneously maintaining the secrecy of the ballot is telling,” Gleason said.

She also rejected the proposed law-enforcement investigation as a remedy. Requiring ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan to be segregated for that purpose, she wrote, “is not a remedy that this Court can or should order as it clearly violate Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot.”

The judge found the federal government hadn’t established legal standing to bring a civil complaint seeking to postpone certification. Early voting was already underway, and ballots had been commingled in a way that would prevent officials from linking individual ballots to voters. The government offered no workable plan for separating ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day while preserving secrecy.

Gleason also said the requested orders would intrude on Alaska’s authority over its elections. The Justice Department argued it wasn’t seeking to alter the “time, place or manner” of the election, but asked for an order blocking certification under specified circumstances, ballot segregation, and federal investigation of voters’ intent. “These requests certainly involve the time, place, and manner of Alaska’s election, which are the responsibilities of the State, not the executive branch of the federal government,” Gleason said.

The Election Fight, and Its Limits

The judge cited the Supreme Court’s Purcell principle, which “strongly cautions” against courts changing election rules close to an election. She declined to let the department amend its complaint, saying amendment would be futile because the court lacked authority to order ballots segregated for a federal investigation. The amended complaint had added a claim under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution to an initial claim under the National Voter Registration Act.

The Senate race pits Sen. Dan S. Sullivan against Democratic nominee Mary Peltola. Daniel J. Sullivan and Gerald Heikes are also on the four-candidate ballot. Neither was considered a contender, CNBC reported, but voters ranking either first could affect the outcome if they ranked Peltola or Sen. Sullivan second. Alaska uses ranked-choice voting: if no candidate receives a majority in the first count, the last-place candidate is eliminated and voters’ next choices are counted.

Daniel J. Sullivan won a primary bid to become the fourth candidate on the ballot in August. Election officials initially blocked him from the primary ballot, but a state judge allowed him to appear and the Alaska Supreme Court upheld that decision. The ballot identifies the incumbent as “Dan S. Sullivan,” with “incumbent” and “registered Republican” beside his name; Daniel J. Sullivan appears without those descriptions. He received 2.5% of the primary vote.

Claims, Denials, and the Certification Question

The Justice Department said the ruling dismissed the case on procedural grounds and didn’t resolve its claim that Daniel J. Sullivan entered the race to confuse voters. A department spokesperson called him “a/k/a Decoy Dan” and said he entered as a “frivolous candidate to confuse voters.” Trump called the situation “voter fraud at the highest level” and said Peltola “should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted.” He had previously accused Peltola and other Democrats of recruiting the retired schoolteacher.

The allegations remain disputed. Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee denied involvement in Daniel J. Sullivan’s campaign, and Peltola said she knew nothing of the alleged efforts. Daniel J. Sullivan denied coordinating with her campaign. The New York Times reported that campaign aides and committee aides were involved in recruitment; its account relied on interviews and cited text messages, Axios reported. NBC News reported that Elisa Rios, Peltola’s former campaign manager, later sought to retract comments she had made to the Times.

The lawsuit also prompted a criminal and civil investigation into Daniel J. Sullivan’s decision to run, CNBC reported. The Republican-led Alaska state government had asked a federal judge to reject the effort to block certification. Gov. Mike Dunleavy had suggested he might not certify a Peltola victory, while Sen. Sullivan declined to say whether he’d support efforts to refuse certification.

Peltola’s campaign said Alaskans would choose their next senator, “not Dan Sullivan or his DC allies.” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Executive Director Devan Barber called the ruling “a victory for democracy.” The dispute now turns back to the election and its certification, after the federal government’s bid to put voters’ ballots into an investigation was rejected.