President Donald Trump called on Wednesday for Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola to be criminally prosecuted and removed from the ballot, days before the midterm election. He spoke to reporters at Joint Base Andrews after a New York Times report said people around her campaign helped recruit a second candidate named Dan Sullivan to run against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“We caught them cold, and Mary Peltola should resign from the race,” Trump said. “I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did, and I think that the people that participated with her should.” He called the episode “voter fraud at the highest level” and said both Peltola and the second Sullivan “should be taken off the ballot.”
According to the Times report, Peltola campaign staff worked with a Democratic operative from Ohio to find another Dan Sullivan. They settled on Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher from Petersburg, who came through Alaska’s August open primary and now appears on the ranked-choice ballot for Tuesday’s general election. The report said Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, told the Times that Peltola was not personally involved in recruiting him but was “definitely aware” of the effort.
Peltola’s campaign said it has had “no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.” Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, ordered the Department of Public Safety to investigate late Wednesday, saying the report showed evidence of an organised effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections. Alaska election officials told CNN that placing candidates on the ballot is a matter of state law, not federal law.
The Justice Department had already filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block certification of the Senate race if Peltola wins, based on the name confusion. The Justice Department declined to comment on Trump’s remarks.
Source: USA Today
