Judge tosses DOJ lawsuit seeking to delay Alaska vote certification

Michael Macagnone, CQ-Roll Call on Nov 1, 2026

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A federal judge on Sunday tossed a lawsuit from the Trump administration that sought to delay the certification of the Alaska Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses.

Sullivan faces Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola and two other candidates in a contest that could help decide control of the Senate. One of those candidates is also named Dan Sullivan, which prompted the Trump administration to file its lawsuit, alleging that, under the state’s ranked choice system, voters may rank the challenger instead of the incumbent.

The complaint also asked the judge to allow a delay until an “investigation” into whether votes for the challenger, listed on the ballot as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., should have gone to the senator, who is listed as Dan S. Sullivan.

But in her ruling Sunday, Judge Sharon L. Gleason of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska said the relief requested by the administration was “infeasible.”

“[Many] voters have already cast their ballots in the November 2026 general election. Those cast ballots have been commingled and cannot now be segregated or the identity of the person who cast each ballot ascertained,” she wrote.

Should the Trump administration appeal the ruling, it would go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

The case started on Oct. 22, when the Trump administration filed the lawsuit, arguing that the courts should delay the certification of the Alaska Senate race if the incumbent Sullivan were to lose and the margin was less than the number of votes the second Sullivan received.

The Justice Department argued that voters could be confused by the presence of a namesake challenger on the state’s ballot and not cast their intended vote for the incumbent. Initially, the lawsuit was filed against the state, but Peltola and Democrats have intervened to argue that the case should be tossed.

Then last week, The New York Times reported that aides for Peltola were involved in the effort to recruit the second Sullivan to enter the Senate race. The DOJ filed an amended complaint accusing Peltola and Democrats of misleading the courts.

“Apparently emboldened by the success of their reported plot to deceive Alaskan voters, Alaskans For Mary and the [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] appear to have turned to misleading this Court,” the DOJ filing said.

Trump himself has accused Peltola of executing a “FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC” and called for both her and the second Sullivan to be removed from the Senate ballot. Under federal law, the state finalized its ballot more than a month ago.

Peltola and Democrats pushed back in their own filing Friday, calling the DOJ’s claims “nonsense.” They also said that they “lack knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief about the truth or falsity of the allegation concerning the purposes of Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy and therefore deny any allegation about those purposes.”

And on Saturday, the Republican-led Alaska state government called on Gleason to dismiss the lawsuit, saying that “the relief demanded is inappropriate and not even possible given Alaskan voters’ vital right to ballot secrecy.”

Earlier this year Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired school teacher, successfully sued in state court to be included on the ballot after election officials had previously removed his name. The state Supreme Court ruled that the second Sullivan was a valid candidate and should be included.

Under Alaska rules, voters can rank up to four candidates on the Senate ballot. If no one takes a majority of first-place votes, the candidate in last position is eliminated, with those votes assigned to the voters’ next choice. The process repeats until one candidate has a majority of the remaining votes.