Alaska Judge Rejects Peltola Campaign’s Ballot Records Request

Alaska Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews on Wednesday rejected Mary Peltola’s campaign request for records identifying absentee ballots flagged for rejection, ruling the request unreasonable while election officials continued processing ballots in the closely contested Senate race.

The campaign had sought a list of affected voters and the reasons their ballots were rejected. Matthews said the Alaska Division of Elections was busy processing ballots from the 2026 general election and lacked the capacity to produce the requested report during the active count.

The state argued that compiling the information would burden election operations and disclose confidential voter information. In a court filing, state attorneys said daily reports on ballots under review were confidential working documents. Michaela Thompson, who oversees absentee ballot review boards, said observers’ versions include home addresses, and observers sign agreements barring them from keeping, copying or recording the information.

Peltola’s campaign said it sought to centralize information already available to observers, not to obtain confidential data or disrupt ballot processing. Campaign attorney Abha Kelly...