ANCHORAGE.- U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed on Sunday the Justice Department lawsuit that sought to block Alaska from certifying its Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses, ruling that the relief requested by the federal government was "infeasible" because many voters have already cast ballots and those ballots can no longer be separated without violating voter secrecy.
Sharon Gleason wrote that the United States provided "no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct a court-ordered unspecified 'investigation' of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy." The judge dismissed the case for lack of standing, holding that the federal court lacks authority to order Alaska to segregate ballots so federal law enforcement can investigate the voters who cast them.
The dispute centers on two men named Sullivan on the ballot: Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan, who faces Democrat Mary Peltola, and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher from Petersburg running without a party label. The Justice Department sued Alaska on October 22, arguing that Daniel J. Sullivan entered the race to confuse voters and siphon votes from the incumbent, and asked to bar certification of a Peltola victory if reassigning Daniel J. Sullivan's votes would change the outcome. Alaska's elections director had rejected Daniel J. Sullivan's candidacy in June as a bad-faith bid, but a state judge reversed that decision and the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed it, keeping both names on the ballot.
Dan Sullivan himself told CNN on Sunday that he will accept the election result, a pledge that contrasted with his own administration's legal push. "I'm going to accept the election results," the senator said, two days before an election that could decide control of the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. The Justice Department immediately filed notice that it will appeal Sharon Gleason's ruling, saying Alaskan voters "deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes."
A race that could decide the Senate
The Alaska contest is one of the handful of races expected to decide which party controls the Senate for the final two years of Donald Trump's term. The latest New York Times/Siena polls put Mary Peltola ahead of Dan Sullivan by 48 percent to 46 percent, within the margin of error, and Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, which adds another layer of uncertainty to the count.
The ruling is the latest blow to the Trump administration's efforts to assert a greater federal role in elections, which under the U.S. Constitution are administered by the states. The American Civil Liberties Union, which intervened in support of Alaska, said the judge rebuffed an effort to single out voters for investigation. The Justice Department countered that the dismissal rested on procedural grounds and did not dispute its claim that Daniel J. Sullivan entered the race "as a frivolous candidate to confuse voters."
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Sources: Al Jazeera, USA Today, Reuters via Dunya News, November 1-2, 2026.