Judge fast-tracks DOJ lawsuit after Peltola motion

A federal judge Monday night fast-tracked the Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking to block prompt certification of Alaska’s Senate election if Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan loses the race because of potential voter confusion from another candidate who shares his name.

Judge Sharon Gleason’s order sets the stage for her to potentially rule on a request by the campaign of Democratic nominee Mary Peltola to dismiss the suit before Election Day, Nov. 3.

The winner of the race could determine which party holds a majority in the Senate starting in January.

Gleason granted a motion by Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to expedite consideration of the case in U.S. District Court in Alaska.

The judge ordered the DOJ to respond by 5 p.m. Alaska Time on Tuesday to motions to intervene in the case by Peltola’s campaign, the DSCC, the League of Women Voters and the advocacy group Common Cause. Gleason said she intends to rule on the motions to intervene by late Wednesday afternoon.

If she grants the motions to intervene, Gleason said the DOJ should be prepared to respond to the motion to dismiss the case by Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC by 5 p.m. Thursday.

Shortly after Gleason issued her order, Alaska election officials filed a motion asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit “immediately, with prejudice, because the complaint has no legal basis.” The filing was the first by state officials in the case.

The motion, which seeks a decision by Nov. 2 — the day before the election — says Alaska’s Division of Elections “has taken significant steps to distinguish” between the two Sullivans on the ballot, “so that voters can easily determine which candidate is which.”

The motion said that “the United States lacks authority to intervene in state elections at all, much less in support of a favored candidate.”

“This lawsuit and this requested relief cast a cloud over Alaska’s election that is contrary to the public interest and that the Court should not allow to linger,” lawyers for the officials said in a court filing.

A lawyer for Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC in a court filing Sunday said they are “seriously concerned” President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Attorney General Todd Blanche will use the lawsuit to “lay the groundwork for unlawful efforts to challenge a potential Peltola victory” if the complaint remains pending as of Nov. 3.

The Department of Justice filed the suit Thursday. Trump later that day said he ordered it.

The DOJ’s suit asks a judge to bar Alaska from certifying the Senate race results if incumbent Sen. Sullivan loses by a margin that could be attributable to voters mistakenly casting their ballots for Daniel J. Sullivan.

The DOJ, in that case, would want an investigation to determine whether enough voters were confused by the men’s names to swing the vote to another candidate, presumably the former Rep. Peltola.

The DOJ claims that Daniel J. Sullivan’s “sole purpose” of running “is to benefit the Peltola campaign by reducing the number of votes for Senator Sullivan.”

Daniel J. Sullivan, in an email to the Alaska Beacon on Monday, said, “This experience has been beyond anything I could have ever imagined.”

“To say that it has now become overwhelming and intimidating is an understatement. It is unending stress, at times paralyzing and I am looking forward to it being over,” Sullivan said, according to the news outlet.

“I ran because I was unhappy with the status quo and wanted to be a voice for common sense, Alaska values and change,” Sullivan said. “With the litigation and threats, I was never really able to get up and running like I wanted, but I did the best I could under the circumstances.”

“As for the DOJ lawsuit against the state, it seems a gross misuse of the Justice Department for a situation that has already been litigated and resolved by the Alaska Supreme Court,” he said, referencing a court action that put his name on the primary ballot after election officials initially rejected it.

“I think the Division of Elections did a notable job of differentiating two candidates on the ballot with similar names and the primary showed there was little if any confusion,” he said. “Alaskan voters are smart and I have faith in their ability to make an informed decision on their ballots.”

In their motion to expedite the case, Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC said, “DOJ filed this lawsuit in the midst of the ongoing general election, less than two weeks before election day, raising issues governed exclusively by state law that were definitively resolved by the Alaska Supreme Court months ago.”

“DOJ seeks an unprecedented order precluding certification of the U.S. Senate election if the candidate the President favors loses narrowly,” the filing said.

“As the proposed Motion to Dismiss reflects, DOJ’s claims are utterly without legal basis,” the filing said.

“The Court should not allow this lawsuit to hang like the Sword of Damocles over the ongoing election, lending false legitimacy to the President’s and the Attorney General’s ongoing efforts to spread false narratives about Alaska’s elections as voting continues and as results begin to be tabulated next week.”

The DOJ declined to comment Monday on the motions, but pointed to an X post by Blanche on Sunday.

“The Department of Justice does not seek to stop any ballot from being cast or to stop the certification of Alaska’s election,” Blanche had said. “This litigation seeks to ensure that after Alaskans cast their ballots, they are preserved in a manner so that only Alaska’s governing officials have the information necessary to make a determination as to whether Alaskan voters were confused or mislead.”

“The lawsuit was written by Justice Department attorneys and the Department did not coordinate with any campaign or candidate, but rather relied solely on federal law,” Blanche said.

The department has not said how any investigation before certification of the election could determine whether a voter was confused about which Sullivan they were voting for. The ballot for the election notes that Sen. Sullivan — whose name is listed as Dan S. Sullivan — is an incumbent and a Republican. There are no words next to the name of the other Sullivan, whose name is spelled out Daniel J. Sullivan.

Peltola on Friday night told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace that the DOJ’s suit “is exactly the kind of corruption that Alaskans are sick and tired of.”

“This is clearly a very desperate attempt to cling to power, using his allies in Washington, D.C., to rig the system even further,” Peltola said.

Peltola’s campaign on Sunday said that on Saturday night she and her family “sustained minor injuries” that required medical attention after a vehicle transporting them en route to the Alaska Federation of Natives Annual Banquet was struck by another driver.

As a result, Peltola posted events in Fairbanks and Bethel on Sunday and Monday. The campaign said that those events would be rescheduled.