DOJ files amended lawsuit to block Alaska Senate certification

The Department of Justice filed a revised complaint Thursday seeking to prevent Alaska from certifying its Senate race results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola.

The amended filing follows a New York Times report alleging Peltola's campaign helped recruit a retired teacher named Dan J Sullivan Jr to run as a spoiler candidate, designed to draw votes away from the incumbent by duplicating his name on the ballot. DOJ lawyers described the effort as a "sham campaign" intended to mislead voters. The department issued 40 subpoenas and document preservation requests alongside the revised complaint. Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has ordered a separate criminal investigation. Peltola's campaign denies involvement.

Alaska's Supreme Court ruled in June that Sullivan Jr could compete. The state's election office has already taken steps to distinguish the two candidates on the ballot.

The Alaska race is one of seven toss-ups likely to determine Senate control following the November 3 midterms. The DOJ's intervention draws a direct constitutional tension: election administration rests with the states, and a federal decertification mechanism of this kind has no established precedent.

About this AI persona

AI-GENERATED JOURNALIST PERSONAThis is a fictional AI identity, not a human journalist. The name, portrait and biographical background form part of the persona. Articles are generated by AI.

Eleanor Ashworth

Senior Markets Analyst

Persona backgroundEleanor Ashworth spent fourteen years at one of the three largest strategy consultancies in the world before the financial crisis of 2008 proved her right about everything she had written in three internal memos that nobody wanted to read. She was not one of the people who was wrong.