Alaska Senate fight heats up as Sullivan moves to block Peltola lawsuit over rejected absentee ballot records

The Senate fight in Alaska is heating up. Senator Dan Sullivan's re-election campaign filed a motion on Monday to intervene in a lawsuit from Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign, arguing the lawsuit was seeking to force Alaska elections officials to ignore state law.

Sullivan and Peltola remain locked in a razor-thin race for the US Senate after last week's election.

Peltola's campaign filed a lawsuit against the Alaska Division of Elections on Friday seeking access to records for absentee ballots that were preliminarily rejected in the midterm election.

The Division responded to the lawsuit by stating that individual voters have yet to be notified that their ballots were rejected, and it would be improper to grant Peltola's campaign access to that data before voters themselves.

Sullivan's campaign argued on Monday that the lawsuit is an attempt to 'rig the system' in Peltola's favour.

Campaign spokesman Nate Adams said, 'It should surprise no one that the same D.C. lawyers who spent more than a year conspiring with Mary Peltola's campaign to deceive Alaskan voters are now asking a court to let her campaign ignore Alaska law and change the rules while votes are still being counted.'

Adams added, 'Peltola's lawsuit is only further evidence that she is not confident she can win on the merits alone, which is why her campaign is once again attempting to rig the system in her favour.'

He continued, 'Our campaign is following Alaska precedent to make sure every legally cast ballot is counted, and we remain confident that when every one of those ballots is counted, Senator Sullivan will win.'

As of Monday, Peltola leads Sullivan by just over 600 votes, with over 25% of votes remaining to be counted.

Sullivan and the Republicans have condemned the Democrats for a 'Decoy Dan' scheme that saw an independent, Daniel J. Sullivan, on the ballot in an alleged plot to siphon votes from the Republican incumbent.

Republican Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said the other Sullivan tried to get on the general election ballot as Daniel S. Sullivan, using the middle initial of the incumbent instead of his own.

Dunleavy said, 'That kind of opened our eyes and we began an investigation back there, the Division of Elections did, to determine if this was a legitimate candidacy, and the Division of Elections at that time found that was not and did not put him on the ballot. Then there was a court case and the Supreme Court in the end ruled against the Division of Elections in Alaska, and they must go on the ballot.'

After a New York Times report tied potential knowledge of the 'Decoy Dan' scheme to Peltola's campaign, Dunleavy reopened the investigation of possible wrongdoing.

Dunleavy called Alaska's voting system 'very confusing' as the razor-thin Senate race remains frozen in time, while Alaska voters appear poised to preserve ranked-choice voting.