Update on Alaska's Dan Sullivan case

DOJ hits steep proof bar in Alaska Senate fight over second Dan Sullivan on the ballot

The Justice Department’s bid to hold Alaska’s Senate certification if a second Dan Sullivan spoils the race now faces a high legal wall, even as critics tie the ballot confusion to Democrat Mary Peltola’s orbit.

Federal lawyers moved to keep Alaska from certifying its U.S. Senate results if incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses and ballots cast for another candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan could have flipped the outcome. The suit, filed roughly two weeks before the Oct. 22 election, seeks time to investigate whether voters picked the wrong man on a ranked-choice ballot stacked with nearly identical names.

The Washington Examiner reported that the Justice Department sued to block those results should “voter confusion” decide a race that could shape control of the Senate. The second Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher listed without a party, drew 2.5% in the primaries, enough to worry Republicans defending a narrow majority.

Ballot labels show the stakes in plain type. The incumbent appears as “Sullivan, Dan S.” with Republican and incumbent tags. The other man appears as “Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.” with no party line.

Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, so voters mark multiple names in order. That system is now central to the federal theory of how confusion might show up after the fact.

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