The U.S. Department of Justice has sued the State of Alaska and the Division of Elections, asking the Court to pre-emptively rule that the election result cannot be certified if the result “may be impacted by voter confusion.” Today, October 29, 2026, the United States filed an amended complaint, pointing to recent reporting by The New York Times that shows intentional actions taken by operatives working for Mary Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) to recruit a spoiler candidate with the same name as the incumbent Senator. Yesterday, Judge Sharon Gleason granted two motions to intervene, one from Alaskans for Mary and the DSCC and the other from the League of Women voters, Common Cause, and two individuals. The intervenors are arguing that they have interest in the case and do not trust the Division of Elections to adequately defend against the United States’ allegations.
The United States amended its initial complaint to include the following argument: “The New York Times has reported that operatives aligned with Peltola spent months recruiting candidates to take votes away from Senator Sullivan. Although what the New York Times reports is not always true, its reporting here aligns with what the United States has been alleging on information and belief. It also aligns with common sense. As part of what was internally called the “Ballot Composition Project,” Ms. Peltola’s team reportedly worked with people trying to recruit another candidate named Dan Sullivan to confuse voters.”
Additionally, the U.S. submitted Director of the Division of Elections Carol Beecher’s initial decision not to certify Daniel J. Sullivan from Petersburg as Exhibit A, which lays out the reasons the Division had suspected Petersburg Dan of ill motives. Despite the plain evidence of Petersburg Dan’s bad motives, the Alaska Supreme Court ordered the Division to include him on the ballot, ruling the Division did not have the power to exclude a candidate based on motive. Now, the District Court of Alaska will need to decide whether or not the United States government may intervene in a state’s election when intentional manipulation of the electorate is involved.
Petersburg Dan received a mere 2.4% of the votes in the primary election, but advanced to the general election due to ranked-choice voting top four rules. Democrat Mary Peltola pulled the most votes with 48% followed by incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan with 42.8%.
The U.S. Department of Justice is asking the Court to pre-emptively rule that the Alaska Division of Election may not certify the election results if “(1) Senator Sullivan does not win the election; and (2) had all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan been cast instead for Senator Sullivan and Alaska’s rank-choice process played out accordingly, Senator Sullivan would have won the election.”
The Division of Elections responded with a motion to dismiss, arguing that “the Division has taken significant steps to distinguish them on the ballot so that voters can easily determine which candidate is which” and that the United States lacks both evidence of harm and authority to intervene in the Alaska’s elections.
There has been no official ruling on the case. Early voting is underway with over 60,000 Alaskans already showing up to cast their ballots or mail it in.
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