Alaska Judge Tosses DOJ Bid to Delay Senate Certification, Department Appeals Before Nov. 3 Vote
Updated
Updated · ms.now · Nov 2
Alaska Judge Tosses DOJ Bid to Delay Senate Certification, Department Appeals Before Nov. 3 Vote
3 articles · Updated · ms.now · Nov 2
Summary
A federal judge in Alaska threw out the Justice Department’s lawsuit that sought a possible delay in certifying the Senate election if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan were to lose.
The ruling landed on the eve of the Nov. 3 midterms, when control of Congress is at stake and Alaska is one of several Senate races seen as potentially decisive.
The Justice Department said it would appeal, keeping the dispute alive even after the lower-court setback.
The Alaska case fits a broader late-campaign push by the Trump administration, which has also pressed California and Washington state over voter rolls and election procedures.
What specific legal precedents allow federal judges to dismiss last-minute certification lawsuits over ballot name confusion?
How did a rushed $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool result in such a catastrophic engineering failure?
Alaska’s 2026 Senate Race: Decoy Candidate Scandal, Ranked-Choice Voting Controversy, and Legal Showdown on Election Certification
Overview
In Alaska’s 2026 U.S. Senate race, political operatives linked to Mary Peltola’s campaign recruited a decoy candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., to confuse voters—a scheme exposed by The New York Times. This triggered state and federal investigations, with law enforcement issuing subpoenas and interviewing donors. Alaska’s Division of Elections initially removed the decoy from the ballot, but the state Supreme Court reinstated him. The controversy led the Department of Justice to file a lawsuit to delay election certification, which was dismissed by a federal judge. These events fueled a renewed push to repeal ranked-choice voting through Ballot Measure 2, intensifying debate over Alaska’s election system.