The Trump administration asked a federal judge Friday to issue an order before Monday directing Alaska election officials to segregate all ballots ranking Senate candidate Dan J. Sullivan as it continues its investigation into his candidacy.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote in a court filing that state officials should “preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary.”
“These modest precautionary measures will be impossible after Election Day, so there is good cause for expedited consideration,” he added.
The filing did not spell out a process for ballot review or explain how reviewing a ballot would show if a voter was confused about ranking the candidates. Alaska uses ranked choice voting, and there are four Senate candidates on the ballot.
The Trump administration has ramped up its efforts to inject itself into the Alaska election, which by statute is handled by state officials, after The New York Times reported this week that Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign was involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan, a former school teacher, to run against Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. Peltola has denied any involvement in Sullivan’s campaign.
At a campaign rally Friday evening, Peltola told supporters that she was “so deeply offended by these accusations about having any involvement with anyone else’s candidacy.”
“I want fewer candidates in the primary. I’m not out soliciting more competition,” Peltola said. “I know we can beat Dan Sullivan because every step of the way, even before I got in this race, my poll numbers were higher than his.”
Peltola urged her supporters to get out to vote and encourage those around them, warning that some voters may have been discouraged from voting for her due to the allegations.
“Our work isn’t done yet because we know that there are people out there who have not voted, who don’t have a plan to vote, who are so turned off by the smear campaigns and the garbage, and you know the accusations, the hollow accusations,” she said. “It’s really up to us to remind people why we need to get out and vote.”
Woodward, alongside Alaska’s top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman, made three other filings Friday regarding the civil case the administration is pursuing in hopes of blocking Alaska from certifying the Senate election results.
In one filing, the prosecutors requested expedited sharing of “internal and external conversations” from Peltola’s campaign “regarding its efforts to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan to run for office.” Another filing asks for the “Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s internal and external conversations regarding its efforts recruit Daniel J. Sullivan to run for office.”
The DSCC has said it was “not involved with Dan J. Sullivan.”
An additional filing seeks a preliminary injunction in the case.
Friday’s filings came shortly after Heyman held a press conference in Alaska, where he acknowledged a parallel criminal case.
Asked what potential crimes prosecutors are looking into, Heyman declined to provide details.
“Because this is an ongoing investigative matter, we can’t discuss the specifics of those investigative steps, and who or may or may not be involved,” he said. “This protects the integrity of the investigation and it protects those who may be the subject or target of those investigations.”
Heyman cited the recent reporting from The New York Times, saying the “new information has resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska.”
The Justice Department issued at least three dozen new subpoenas and document preservation requests as of Thursday, including subpoenas sent to the campaign offices of Peltola and of Dan J. Sullivan.
President Donald Trump, who has urged legal action against Peltola and the second Sullivan, said Friday morning that he doesn’t know whether Sen. Dan S. Sullivan can win with the current ballot.
“I will tell you, he’s a great senator, and what they tried to do, and he would, you know, he would have won,” Trump said in an interview with Kansas City talk radio host Pete Mundo. “I don’t know how he can win here because you’re splitting up the vote illegally. I think it’s a total fraud.”
Trump has said repeatedly that Dan J. Sullivan should be removed from the ballot.
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this week, Sen. Sullivan told supporters in Alaska how to mark up their ballot to best help him on Election Day.
“So rank me first, Sullivan, Dan S. Registered Republican incumbent. That’s what the ballot says,” he said. “Rank the other Republican second, [Gerald] Heikes. Rank, I hate to say it, Sean, but in our screwed-up system, you rank the fake guy third, and then of course blank. Do not rank Peltola. Now that is the screwed up system we have.”
