In new filings Friday afternoon, the Trump administration requested that ballots immediately be segregated as part of its lawsuit targeting Alaska’s Senate election and the Justice Department asked the judge to fast-track its requests that Democrats turn over information about their efforts to recruit a spoiler candidate in the race.
If there’s a vote for Daniel J. Sullivan, the Justice Department wants it to be set aside.
The administration made the requests as the judge has set a quick timeline that could resolve the case by Monday.
Judge Sharon Gleason is considering requests from Alaska election officials, Democrats and outside groups that she toss the DOJ’s lawsuit, which seeks to delay certification of the election if the incumbent GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses in order to investigate whether voter confusion caused his defeat.
In response to Alaska’s arguments that the administration is not putting forward evidence that voters are being confused by the presence of the candidate Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot, the DOJ said that it was “common sense that a sham candidate on the ballot with the same name as the incumbent might confuse voters.”
“The segregation of ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan constitutes a negligible further burden on Defendants,” the Justice Department request says.
Alaska election officials had also noted that the administration had not spelled out how exactly it would be determined, if Sen. Sullivan lost, that voter confusion led to his defeat.
“Defendants can take measures, including but not limited to the segregation of ballots, to ensure the integrity of Alaska’s elections results, and this Court can order them to do so,” DOJ said Friday afternoon.
The administration also said the judge should order the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and the campaign for Rep. Mary Peltola, the Sen. Sullivan’s Democratic challenger, to quickly comply with “tailored” discovery requests aimed at sussing out whether Sullivan’s candidacy was “frivolous or fraudulent.”
Alaska’s Republican-led elections office — which tried to remove Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot but was stopped by the state supreme court several months ago — agued that Daniel J.’s motives for running were irrelevant to the legal debate over whether the federal government has the legal right to interfere in certification.
The DOJ said that the information it is seeking from the Democrats “strikes at the core of the United States’ claims.”