Sullivan campaign asks to join Peltola's ballot-records suit before Tuesday hearing

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan's campaign asked an Anchorage judge Monday to let it join Democrat Mary Peltola's lawsuit seeking the state's running record of which absentee ballots are being accepted or rejected, Fox News reported.

If the judge lets the campaign in, it could argue against Peltola's request. Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews has scheduled a hearing in the case for 10 am Tuesday. The motion wasn't in the public court record Monday, so its legal arguments couldn't be checked.

Sullivan campaign spokesman Nate Adams said the lawyers behind Peltola's suit are "asking a court to let her campaign ignore Alaska law." "Our campaign is following Alaska precedent to make sure every legally cast ballot is counted," he said.

Peltola's campaign, Alaskans for Mary, sued Friday under the state's public records law. It wants the absentee register showing the accept-or-reject code for each returned absentee ballot, or records showing whose ballots were rejected and why. It says it needs them now to make sure its voters' lawful ballots are counted. It isn't seeking anyone's marked ballot, doesn't claim any specific ballot was wrongly rejected and doesn't ask the court to stop the count.

The state Department of Law opposes releasing the records now. It says the classifications are preliminary and can change, and aren't yet available to the affected voters. Producing them as requested could burden ballot processing and delay the count, it says. Authorized observers can view certain daily records under confidentiality agreements but can't keep them, it says.

Peltola led Sullivan by 637 first-choice votes in the Division of Elections' latest unofficial results, posted Wednesday. The Associated Press estimated that day that roughly 75,000 ballots remained. The division is scheduled to post its next count Tuesday. If no one has a majority once all ballots are counted, a ranked-choice count Nov. 18 would decide the race.