Judge Tosses DOJ Suit Over Alaska Senate Race Ballots
The Facts
- A federal judge Sunday dismissed the Justice Department's (DOJ) lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska's U.S. Senate race if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, a bid filed less than two weeks before Election Day as early voting was underway. The DOJ is concerned about confusion over there being two candidates named Dan Sullivan.
- U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason wrote that the government offered no workable plan to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan, the non-incumbent, while preserving voter secrecy. She also found that the federal government lacked legal standing to bring the case.
- The DOJ appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying that the case was dismissed on procedural grounds and that Alaskan voters "deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes."
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The Spin
Democratic narrative
The judge was right to toss this case since a lawsuit that can't explain how its own remedy would even work has no business in federal court. Digging through ballots to figure out which Alaskans voted for which Sullivan would gut the secret ballot, and no outcome is worth that trade. Election rules belong to the states, not to a president demanding a result in advance.
Republican narrative
An activist judge throwing this case out shields the Democrats' scheme. Hiding behind standing and a calendar, when a decoy candidate with a near-identical name lands on the ballot, hands the Democratic operatives exactly what the timing was designed to deliver. Setting those ballots aside would expose no voter's choice, only preserve the evidence.
