WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s administration filed a lawsuit to block Alaska’s certification of the U.S. Senate race if Republicans lose, based on confusion about the incumbent’s name.
Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, R-Alaska, is defending his seat against Democratic former state Rep. Mary Peltola. But Sullivan has trailed the challenger with another candidate in the race, retired schoolteacher Daniel J. Sullivan.
The Justice Department asked a federal court on Oct. 22 to declare that “any result that may be impacted by voter confusion” would violate the senator’s duties under the National Voting Rights Act’s aim to “protect the integrity of the electoral process.”
The lawsuit asks the court to prevent the state of Alaska from certifying election
results “pending an investigation to determine whether votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan were meant to be cast for Senator Sullivan.”
The lawsuit contends that Daniel J. Sullivan is running as a Republican despite being “a known longtime supporter of Democratic candidates.” The challenger’s website “uses a format, color scheme and overall theme similar to the public website for Senator Sullivan’s campaign,” the lawsuit said.
Daniel J. Sullivan sought judicial review of keeping his name on the Nov. 3 ballot, and Alaska’s state Supreme Court summarily approved it.
Derek Muller, an election law expert at Notre Dame Law School, called the Justice Department’s legal argument “one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen.”
“In short, like many Department letters over the last few years, it is designed to win the press release rather than the litigation,” Muller wrote on a blog about election law.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DOJ sues to block Alaska from certifying Senate race if Republican loses
