10
Loading video...
By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Alaska Democrats and Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola have asked a federal judge to quickly dismiss a Trump administration lawsuit seeking to stop the state from certifying the results if Republican Senator Dan Sullivan narrowly loses.
President Donald Trump said he directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to sue the state of Alaska and its election officials last week over its U.S. Senate ballot that includes two candidates named Dan Sullivan, one of whom the administration claims has been planted by Democrats to confuse voters.
The lawsuit hinges on whether the votes cast for the other Sullivan—a retired teacher now listed in ballots as "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr."—would have changed the winner under Alaska's ranked choice voting system if they had instead been cast for the Trump-endorsed incumbent.
Read More on News
In a court filing submitted on Sunday, Peltola's campaign and the party’s Senate campaign committee said they were concerned that Trump and the Attorney General would use the pending lawsuit "to falsely suggest that there is doubt about the lawfulness of Alaska's election results," and "lay the groundwork for unlawful efforts to challenge a potential Peltola victory."
The filing cites a Truth Social post shared by the president on Saturday, in which he described the Alaska Senate race's ranked-choice voting ballot as "a total Democrat scam meant to confuse the voter so that Senator Dan Sullivan will lose votes to a man who has never participated in politics before." He added that Daniel J. Sullivan was "only there because the Democrats want to steal the election."
Trump called the DOJ lawsuit an attempt to "stop this impending crime and tragedy." He added: "the Democrats are trying to steal this important Republican Seat and, if that happens, everything we've done for Alaska will come to an immediate halt."
The attorney for the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senate campaign committee, David R. Fox, described the DOJ's lawsuit as "entirely baseless" and requested an expedited consideration of their motions to intervene and dismiss the case, seeking a ruling "before election day" on November 3.
...
This is a developing story. More to follow.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines