ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska’s Republican-run state government on Saturday issued a sharp rebuke to the U.S. Department of Justice, urging a federal judge to immediately dismiss a lawsuit filed at the direction of President Donald Trump that seeks to halt the certification of a pivotal U.S. Senate race.
In a scathing filing submitted to U.S. District Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason, the state attorney general’s office argued that there is “no reason for this Court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any longer.” The filing comes as Judge Gleason weighs whether to dismiss the case entirely without holding a hearing.
The federal lawsuit, initiated by the Department of Justice, has faced widespread condemnation from election law experts. It demands that the court block the certification of a potential victory for Democrat Mary Peltola, alleging that voters may have been confused by the presence of a second candidate on the ballot who shares the same name as her opponent, incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.
Tensions escalated on Friday when the Department of Justice filed an additional request, asking the court to order election officials to separate all ballots cast for the second Dan Sullivan—a retired school teacher from the remote village of Petersburg—to determine if voters were deceived by a “spoiler” candidate.
Alaska officials categorically rejected that proposal in Saturday’s filing, labeling the request as “both disturbing and impossible.” The state argued that attempting to segregate ballots in such a manner would be logistically unfeasible and would constitute an illegal violation of voter privacy.
President Trump has weighed in heavily on the controversy, demanding that the Peltola campaign be prosecuted. His calls for action follow reports from The New York Times this week suggesting that Democratic operatives may have been involved in recruiting the second Sullivan to run, theoretically siphoning votes away from the Republican senator.
However, state officials countered those claims by highlighting the explicit measures already taken to ensure clarity at the polls. The filing noted that the two candidates are clearly distinguished on the ballot: the incumbent is explicitly listed as a Republican, while the other is identified simply as “Daniel J. Sullivan.”
“State officials carefully designed the ballot to minimize voter confusion,” the Alaska legal team wrote. “The Court should immediately dismiss this lawsuit with prejudice and allow state officials to conduct the general election — including ballot counting and certification — free from unwarranted federal interference.”
The state’s pushback underscores a widening rift between local Republican authorities and the federal executive branch over the management of state elections. As the deadline for Judge Gleason’s decision looms, state officials maintain that their electoral processes are transparent, lawful, and operating entirely within the scope of Alaska’s statutes.
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