The Trump administration wants to ensure Alaskans are not misled into voting for the wrong Dan Sullivan in the U.S. Senate race, Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday in two interviews defending a new federal lawsuit.
Mr. Blanche said a lawsuit filed Thursday seeking to delay certification of the Senate race in Alaska aims to determine if voters become confused by a candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.
Mr. Sullivan’s name will appear on the ballot underneath that of Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, a Republican, who is locked in a tight race with Democrat Mary Peltola.
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“If it’s clear that there was confusion and that confusion led to an unjust, improper result that is not the will of the Alaskan voters, we want to make sure that the Alaskan system and the Alaskan state courts and the Alaskan electoral process can understand that in a way that lets them do the right thing,” Mr. Blanche said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The Department of Justice is seeking to block certification only if the incumbent loses and would have won had all of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s votes gone to him.
Mr. Blanche said Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system would allow an examination of the ballots to determine if voters were confused by the two Sullivans appearing on the ballot.
The incumbent has served in the Senate since 2015. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. is a retired elementary school teacher running as an independent. He has donated to Democrats, including Ms. Peltola.
President Trump said he ordered the Justice Department to file the lawsuit, telling reporters on Friday, “I’m the one that said do it.”
Mr. Blanche declined Sunday to say whether Mr. Trump spoke to him directly to request the Justice Department file the lawsuit.
“Make no mistake about it, the head of Alaskan elections has made very clear that this candidate’s only purpose is to confuse voters,” Mr. Blanche said on CNN. “And so, what do you think the Department of Justice should do when there is a head of election, there’s a federal system in place, there’s laws in place that allow us to step in if constitutional rights and statutory rights are potentially being violated in the election process?”
Alaska’s ranked-choice system involves recalculating voter support in multiple rounds if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.
“So because of rank-based voting, voters write not just one, not just two, but multiple names on the ballot. And so there are a number of scenarios where it could be obvious that a voter was confused by the way they wrote down candidates,” Mr. Blanche said.
The Alaska Supreme Court decided earlier this year that Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.’s name could appear on the ballot.
The federal lawsuit “is not to let the let the federal government take over the Alaska system of selecting their next senator, or certifying who’s going to be senator. It’s asking the court to step in … to allow a process for Alaska to decide who should be certified as a winner,” Mr. Blanche said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
On Friday, Ms. Peltola and the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm asked a federal judge to throw out the Justice Department lawsuit. They called the lawsuit “part of a nationwide attack on free elections by the federal government.”
In Alaska’s Aug. 18 open primary, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. received 2.47% of the vote, Ms. Peltola garnered 49.54% and Dan S. Sullivan, the incumbent, won 41.4%.
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