‘Not every wrong can be righted in federal court’: Alaska’s Republican-run state government fights DOJ bid to stall certification in Senate race

Alaska’s Republican-controlled state government asked a federal judge on Saturday to throw out a Department of Justice lawsuit aimed at blocking certification of the results in the state’s U.S. Senate contest. The suit, brought at the direction of President Donald Trump, seeks to prevent certification if Democrat Mary Peltola appears to defeat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, according to PBS News.

In a filing from the attorney general’s office, state officials said there is “no reason for this Court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any longer.” Judge Sharon L. Gleason had given parties until Saturday to submit arguments on whether she should dismiss the case without holding a hearing.

The Justice Department’s complaint asks the court to pause certification until officials can determine whether voters were confused by the presence of a second candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. On Friday, the department also requested that the judge isolate every ballot that contains a vote for the second Sullivan so investigators can examine whether those votes were cast by mistake for a spoiler.

State response highlights privacy issues and prior Supreme Court decision

Alaska officials described the request to separate those ballots as “both disturbing and impossible.” They explained that isolating the votes would require examining individual ballots in a way that would violate voter privacy protections. The filing noted that “State officials carefully designed the ballot to minimize voter confusion.” The incumbent is identified on the ballot as a Republican and the sitting senator, while the other candidate appears only as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.”

That second candidate is a retired school teacher who lives in the remote fishing village of Petersburg. Earlier this summer, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that he had met every legal requirement to remain on the ballot, and the state’s Saturday filing said newly reported details about how he got there do not change his legal status.

President Trump has called for Peltola to be prosecuted after The New York Times reported that internal texts and posts appear to show her campaign played a role in recruiting the second Sullivan. Peltola has denied any involvement. Trump has also said he personally ordered the DOJ lawsuit.

The Times account relied on interviews with her former campaign manager, along with texts and contributions from a group supporting her to an out-of-state Democratic consultant who helped bring the teacher onto the ballot. “Not every wrong can be righted in federal court,” the state wrote. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced a separate state investigation after the Times story and has publicly condemned the second Sullivan’s presence on the ballot.

The Justice Department has maintained that language in the preamble of a 1990s voter-registration statute gives it authority to protect the “integrity” of federal elections. Officials said their goal is to prevent fraud in a race that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.

The department has issued multiple subpoenas and opened a criminal investigation while the administration has increased its legal efforts in support of Trump-aligned candidates in the midterms.

Peltola’s campaign and several voting-rights organizations have also asked Judge Gleason to dismiss the case, an unusual alignment with Alaska’s Republican state officials.

In its own filing, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote: “Imagine if the federal executive could pluck a few words like ‘election integrity’ from some statutory preamble and, on that basis alone, bend the machinery of state elections to his will, preemptively blocking certification of a U.S. Senate election to protect his preferred candidate from defeat and then subjecting voters to a law-enforcement-led inquest about who they ‘really’ supported.”

The group continued, “Imagine that world and ask whether it is what the Framers wanted or precisely what they most feared.” State officials closed their argument by asking the court to “immediately dismiss this lawsuit with prejudice and allow state officials to conduct the general election, including ballot counting and certification, free from unwarranted federal interference.”