Alaska Senate race: Republican Dan Sullivan decries same-name decoy candidate on ballot

A decoy name on the Alaska ballot

Voters in Alaska cast ballots on Tuesday, 3 November, in a Senate race that polls show is tied between Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, 61, and Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman. The ballot also carries Daniel S. Sullivan Jr., an independent who is a retired teacher from Petersburg, and Erick Hafner, a Democratic congressional candidate who remains detained in New York. The incumbent's entry carries the note 'Registered Republican, incumbent', while the decoy is listed above him. Reports say the race could be settled by a few hundred votes, which is why the same-name candidate has drawn national attention.

Accusations of a plot

On Tuesday Dan Sullivan told reporters in Anchorage, after voting at the Alaska Zoo, that the episode was the biggest election fraud scandal in the state's history. He blamed Peltola and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer for devising the scheme, and said he would accept the result once every legal vote is counted and certified, even if he loses. A New York Times investigation published in late October, citing at least 12 sources, reported text messages among members of Peltola's campaign discussing recruiting people with the same surname as the senator. The same reporting implicates senior advisers at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Peltola's campaign and the committee deny any involvement, and Daniel S. Sullivan Jr. has not commented on the matter.

A voter's confusion and an FBI visit

Greg Martone, an early voter, told NewsNation on Sunday, 1 November, after casting his ballot, that he may have voted for the wrong Dan Sullivan. He said he hoped the feeling was only paranoia, and that he wanted to check a sample ballot to see the order of the names. After reviewing one, he told CNN he was 99% sure he had voted for the incumbent as he intended. He said his confused remarks came from a sleepless night, and he described the episode as a perfect storm of exhaustion. He told CNN that FBI agents visited his home after the interview and questioned him for about 20 minutes about whether the ballot had misled him. He also rejected online theories that he works as a political operative, and said his family owns a print shop that produced political flyers but that the work is not strictly partisan.

State and federal responses

Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy ordered an investigation into whether Democrats tried to mislead voters, and in late October said certification of the Senate results could be suspended or overturned if illegal actions are found. The Justice Department is investigating the same question. On Monday, 2 November, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that lawyers were keeping the decoy out of sight while coaching him, and he framed the matter as one of the largest fraud cases in US history. The Trump administration also tried to challenge the Alaska result in advance, a request a federal judge rejected. The outcome could determine which party controls the Senate.