A judge has dismissed a Donald Trump-backed lawsuit that sought to block certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses. Trump said on 23 October that he had ordered the Justice Department to file the suit, a move voting rights experts described as an “unprecedented intervention” by the federal government while control of Congress was at stake.
The Justice Department argued in the lawsuit, filed less than two weeks before Election Day, that there could be “voter confusion” because two candidates named Dan Sullivan appeared on the November ballot. Republicans feared the situation could take votes away from the incumbent and influence the race’s outcome in favor of Democratic nominee Mary Peltola.
Sullivan said in a CNN interview on Sunday morning that he would accept the results of his upcoming election. Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether he would accept the results only if he won, Sullivan replied: “No, I’m going to accept the election results.”
According to a recent New York Times investigation, aides from Peltola’s campaign recruited another man who shared Sullivan’s name to join the race in a ploy to peel away votes from the Republican incumbent. Since those revelations, Republicans including Trump have called for Peltola to be disqualified from the race and criminally prosecuted. Peltola has continued to deny any knowledge of such a scheme by her campaign, recently telling a reporter at a campaign event that she had “no idea” if any of her staff were involved.
Earlier in the CNN interview, Sullivan said he was not focused on how Peltola’s campaign might be legally challenged and was instead focused on winning the race outright. He nonetheless expressed doubt that Peltola had lacked knowledge of the effort to put a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot, saying: “She’s continually lying to the Alaskan people. And I guarantee you, she’s lying right now.”
The Washington Post reported that Republicans also tried to boost unviable Democratic candidates in the Alaska primaries. A Republican Super PAC boosted two Senate candidates who did not live in Alaska and praised them as “progressives” similar to Bernie Sanders, according to the report.
Sources: The Guardian World.