Justice Department sues to hold up Alaska Senate result if second Sullivan tips the race

The U.S. Justice Department sued Alaska on Thursday, asking a federal judge to stop the state from certifying the U.S. Senate race if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses and votes for the other Daniel Sullivan on the ballot would have changed the result.

The complaint, filed in federal court in Anchorage 12 days before the Nov. 3 election, does not try to stop the vote. It asks for an order afterward, holding up certification pending an investigation, but only if two things happen: the senator does not win, and the outcome would have flipped had votes for Daniel J. Sullivan gone to him through the ranked-choice count.

The department argues that Daniel J. Sullivan's candidacy "threatens to mislead" Alaskans who mean to vote for the incumbent, and that certifying a result shaped by that confusion would violate the National Voter Registration Act. Some of the senator's supporters will likely vote for the wrong Sullivan by mistake, the complaint says, and others may be confused about how to rank three candidates it counts as Republicans and leave the senator off.

Four candidates are on the ballot: the senator, Daniel J. Sullivan, Democrat Mary Peltola and Republican Gerald Heikes.

President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday evening that "we are looking at powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the Ballot," Alaska News reported. He later said he had directed the lawsuit, according to The Associated Press. The suit does not seek to remove Daniel J. Sullivan, whose name is already on ballots Alaskans have been casting since early voting began Oct. 19.

The state already tried. In June, Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher rejected Daniel J. Sullivan's filing, finding he had filed to confuse voters. State courts, including the Alaska Supreme Court, ruled the division could not keep him off the ballot.

Daniel J. Sullivan, of Petersburg, has said he decided to run on his own. Republicans contend he is a Democratic plant meant to pull votes from the senator.

The ballot lists the two men differently. The senator appears as a registered Republican and the incumbent, and Daniel J. Sullivan appears without a party designation. Voters can rank both.

Derek Muller, a Notre Dame election-law professor, told the AP that the federal law the department cites "simply doesn't let the Department of Justice enjoin certification." He said a wide Democratic win or a narrow Republican one could make the case moot, and he predicted the court would likely dismiss it next month.

Daniel J. Sullivan did not respond to the AP's requests for comment.