Politics
DOJ seeks to block Alaska Senate results in a loss for Sullivan
The Justice Department is asking a court to prevent Alaska from certifying its Senate results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, an unprecedented step announced shortly before Election Day. The move comes amid a broader Trump administration push to influence election rules and access voter records.
The Justice Department has asked a court to block Alaska’s Senate election results from taking effect if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, a move that drew alarm from election officials in both parties less than two weeks before Election Day.
The request, made Thursday, would intervene before the outcome is known. The details of the department’s legal argument were not provided in the available account of the filing. Ben Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer who advised George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, said the request had no basis in law and called it a “desperation play.”
The Alaska case follows a series of Trump administration efforts to reshape election administration. The Justice Department has sued in nearly every state seeking access to voter files. President Donald Trump has also renewed his push to restrict mail voting, sought to tie anti-terrorism funding to states’ election practices and threatened to withhold federal election funding from states that do not change voter registration forms.
Those initiatives have faced legal and political resistance, including a dispute over mail voting that reached the Supreme Court and a clash with Republican lawmakers over election legislation. The Justice Department’s Alaska request raises the stakes by seeking court intervention in a specific Senate contest before voters have finished casting ballots.
The case concerns Sullivan, whom Trump joined at a campaign rally in Wasilla on Oct. 13. The filing’s potential effect on Alaska voters and the state’s process for finalizing election results will depend on how the court responds.