Todd Blanche defends Alaska Senate certification lawsuit
Attorney General Todd Blanche says the DOJ case is meant to preserve a court review of alleged ballot confusion if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses.
By Maya Okafor · Markets Writer
· 3 min read
Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the Alaska Senate certification lawsuit on Oct. 25, saying the Justice Department is seeking a process to examine alleged voter confusion, not to take control of a state election. The case concerns a conditional request to block certification, rather than a request to halt the Nov. 3 election before votes are cast.
The United States filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska on Oct. 22, naming the state, its elections director, election boards and the State Ballot Counting Review Board as defendants. The case is United States v. State of Alaska et al., No. 3:26-cv-00376-SLG.
President Donald Trump said the following day that he had directed the Justice Department to bring the case. On CNN's State of the Union, Blanche denied that the administration was preparing to challenge an unwanted result, saying Trump was not trying to take over the election, according to NPR and PBS NewsHour.
What would the Alaska Senate certification lawsuit do?
The complaint asks a federal court to prevent certification only under a specific set of circumstances: incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan would have to lose, and the court would have to determine that, if votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan had instead gone to the senator, the ranked-choice count would have produced a Sullivan victory.
The Justice Department alleges that Daniel J. Sullivan entered the race to mislead voters who intended to support Sen. Sullivan and to help Democratic candidate Mary Peltola. Those are allegations in the government's complaint, not findings by a court. Daniel J. Sullivan has denied that he is running to confuse voters, NPR reported.
Blanche said the case would establish safeguards for a later legal review if evidence of confusion emerged. He said Alaska and its courts would make any ultimate determination. The department has cited the National Voter Registration Act as a basis for the action.
Alaska's general election uses ranked-choice voting. Voters rank candidates, and if no one wins a majority in the first count, the lowest-finishing candidate is eliminated and those voters' next preferences are counted. The process repeats until a candidate reaches a majority.
On the ballot, the incumbent is listed as “Dan S. Sullivan,” a registered Republican and incumbent, while the other candidate is listed as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” without a party affiliation, PBS reported.
What have Alaska courts and the lawsuit's opponents said?
Alaska's Division of Elections previously sought to remove Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot. A state court ordered his return, and the Alaska Supreme Court allowed him to remain, according to CNBC and Politico. Blanche said the earlier state litigation did not explicitly address the federal-law issue raised by the Justice Department.
Alaskans for Mary and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have moved to intervene. Separately, proposed intervenors including the League of Women Voters of Alaska and Common Cause have sought dismissal. Their filings argue that the National Voter Registration Act governs voter registration, not candidate listing, vote counting or certification. Those objections remain arguments before the court; the supplied filings do not show a ruling on the Justice Department's complaint or the intervention motions.
This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.
