Judge Throws Out Justice Department Bid to Block Alaska Senate Certification Over Namesake Candidate

A federal judge on Sunday threw out the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to segregate ballots and delay certification of Alaska’s Senate race, ruling two days before the November 3 election that the government had no standing to force the change and no workable plan for carrying it out while protecting the secret ballot.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason, in Anchorage, rejected the request to set aside ballots cast for a second candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan so federal officials could investigate them if Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan lost. The Justice Department argued that voters could confuse the two men, whose names are similar, and that a court-ordered review was needed if votes for the other Sullivan changed the outcome.

Gleason wrote that the government had offered no workable plan for separating ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conducting a court-ordered investigation of those ballots in a way that would preserve voter secrecy. She also wrote that it was too late for a court to force such a large change on the eve of an election, according to CNN.

The judge went further, writing that ordering segregation and a future investigation would likely cause voter confusion and give voters a reason to stay away from the polls. She wrote that late changes to election rules are strongly disfavored, according to CNN.

What the ruling leaves in place

The ruling leaves Alaska’s election procedures unchanged for Tuesday’s vote. Democrat Mary Peltola is trying to unseat Sen. Sullivan in a race that, according to CNN, could decide which party controls the Senate.

A Justice Department spokesperson said Sunday that the administration would appeal the ruling, according to CNN. The spokesperson said Alaskan voters deserve a fair election and should not be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes, CNN reported.

Alaska officials and groups that opposed the lawsuit argued that the dispute over Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy had already been settled in state court months earlier. They also argued that the Justice Department had offered no evidence that voters were confused by his inclusion, in part because election administrators added identifiers to the ballot to distinguish him from Sen. Sullivan, according to CNN.

A wider set of election rulings

The Alaska decision was the latest in a series of court rulings against Justice Department election efforts in the final days before the midterms. A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a Justice Department demand that California election officials set aside ballots from 20,000 people the administration claims could be noncitizens, according to CNN.

Separately, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson late Friday imposed an emergency order restricting the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security from demanding that election officials in any state segregate ballots, purge voters from voter rolls, or halt ballot processing, CNN reported. Thompson also ruled that the administration cannot threaten, intimidate, or coerce election officials to demand changes in ballot processing procedures on claims that voters are ineligible, according to CNN. The Justice Department has appealed that ruling, CNN reported.

Reporting based on coverage by CNN and Reuters.