The Justice Department sued on Thursday, 22 October 2026, asking a federal judge in Alaska to bar certification if Republican Dan S. Sullivan loses the Senate race to Mary Peltola.
Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, appears without a party designation, and the Alaska Supreme Court rejected earlier Republican efforts to remove him from the ballot.
David Becker said he expects courts to reject the suit, while Attorney General Blanche told reporters on 22 October that the department did not intend to interfere with state certification.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit in federal court in Alaska on Thursday, 22 October 2026, asking a judge to bar state officials from certifying the Senate result if Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses. Stanley Woodward, a senior department official, signed the complaint. Government lawyers argue that a second candidate with a nearly identical name, Daniel J. Sullivan, could mislead voters and hand a win to Mary Peltola even if most Alaskans wanted the senator. The department cannot halt certification on its own and would need a court order to do so. The filing states its central claim this way:
“The United States accordingly brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska.”
The lawsuit also sets out a hypothetical in which the senator would have won had the votes cast for the other Sullivan gone to him and Alaska's ranked-choice count run its course.
Republicans hold 53 Senate seats to the Democrats' 47, and Democrats need 51 to take control, while Alaska is one of four seats Democrats are targeting. Polls suggest a tight contest between Dan S. Sullivan and Peltola, with Peltola holding a narrow lead. Many in both parties expect the fight for control of the chamber to come down to Alaska. Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, says he decided to run on his own, although Republicans contend he is a Democratic plant meant to draw votes from their candidate. The Alaska Supreme Court rejected earlier Republican efforts to remove him from the ballot, and state electoral authorities had tried to exclude him in June over similarities between the two campaigns. He appears without a party designation, while the senator is listed as the Republican incumbent. Alaska's ranked-choice system lets voters select both men if they are confused at the ballot box.
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David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan group that advises election officials, said he could not recall a federal attempt to block certification of an election filed 11 days before the vote. He called the move political interference and said the federal government has no authority over how Alaska certifies its results.
“The feds have absolutely no authority to tell Alaska when and how to certify.”
Becker said Alaska officials were following state law, as the Constitution requires, and he expected the courts to reject the administration's suit. The Constitution gives states control over running elections, while Congress sets the rules for federal contests. Blanche, the attorney general, told reporters in Virginia earlier on 22 October that the department did not intend to improperly interfere with elections or state certification, and that such a step was unlikely outside extreme circumstances. Democrats and many voting rights advocates have long feared that the administration would try to block certification of an election its party lost, as Trump unsuccessfully tried after the 2020 presidential race.
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The Justice Department asked a federal court in Alaska to stop certification of the Senate result if Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola, citing a second candidate with a nearly identical name on the ballot.
AI text based on reports by The New York Times, EL PAÍS, BBC and other publishers. Published .