A federal judge on Sunday threw out a Justice Department lawsuit that sought to block certification of Alaska’s Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses. U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled that the government lacked standing to bring the case and offered no workable plan for the relief it requested.
The lawsuit, filed less than two weeks before Election Day, asked the court to segregate ballots cast for a second candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher running as an independent. The Justice Department argued that voters could confuse the two Sullivans and that results should not be certified until the confusion was investigated.
Gleason wrote that the relief sought was infeasible because many ballots have already been cast and commingled, making it impossible to identify individual voters. She added that segregating ballots for a federal investigation would violate Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot.
Alaska officials had urged the court on Saturday to dismiss the case, calling the requested relief inappropriate and impossible given ballot secrecy. The state argued that its ballot was carefully designed to limit confusion, listing the senator as the Republican incumbent and the other candidate simply as Daniel J. Sullivan.
The Justice Department is expected to appeal the ruling, according to reports. The decision arrives days before an election that will help decide control of the Senate, where Sullivan faces Democrat Mary Peltola.
Source: CNN
