Justice Department Seeks Conditional Block on Alaska Senate Certification

The Justice Department sued Alaska election officials on October 22, asking a federal judge to block certification of the state’s Senate election if a hypothetical vote-transfer test indicates that incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan would otherwise have won. The complaint concerns Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a second candidate with a name similar to the Republican senator’s, and the possibility that voters could confuse the two. The requested restriction would apply if Dan Sullivan loses and the ranked-choice result would have favored him if votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan had instead gone to the incumbent. The lawsuit does not establish that such confusion occurred or that the test will be met. The department argues that the National Voter Registration Act’s purpose of protecting election integrity provides a basis for federal intervention. It asks the court to prevent certification of a result meeting the hypothetical condition while an investigation and further judicial proceedings take place. The case is before U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. No ruling or hearing date was reported. Alaska’s ranked-choice system advances...