The Election Is Secure Unless Our Guy Loses

The Justice Department has proposed an election-integrity test for Alaska: first, check whether Senator Dan Sullivan lost. Only then does the specific certification alarm in its new lawsuit become eligible to sound. Apparently, a confusing ballot can recover remarkably well when it produces the preferred winner.

The October 22 complaint concerns two candidates: incumbent Republican Dan S. Sullivan and challenger Daniel J. Sullivan. DOJ wants certification blocked if the senator loses and would have won had every vote for the other Sullivan gone to him, with Alaska’s ranked-choice process recalculated accordingly. That is narrower than blocking any Republican defeat. It is also an unusually personalized definition of a result needing federal supervision.

The requested pause would last pending an investigation into whether those voters meant to choose the senator, plus any further procedures or relief the court considers necessary to establish the result without the challenger. The lawsuit does not itself transfer votes, cancel the election or award Sullivan the seat. The public federal docket reviewed through October 23 shows requests and intervention filings, not an injunction granting this remedy. Those distinctions matter, even when the complaint arrives practically carrying a campaign sign.

DOJ’s strongest argument is worth stating fairly. It invokes the National Voter Registration Act’s election-integrity purpose and the attorney general’s enforcement authority. It argues that misleading candidacies can distort voters’ choices, including their rankings, and that tainted federal certification injures the United States. Alaska’s elections director had herself found the challenger’s candidacy intended to confuse voters. Protecting people from choosing someone they did not intend to support is a legitimate objective. Whether this federal statute authorizes this particular intervention is another question.

There is also a rather substantial attachment to that official concern: the state courts did not leave the exclusion standing. On June 29, Alaska’s Supreme Court affirmed an order putting the challenger on the primary ballot and sent the naming question back to election officials. The general-election sample ballot now lists “Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.” without a party label and “Sullivan, Dan S. (Registered Republican) Incumbent.” The government has supplied several clues beyond asking voters to recognize their senator by spiritual connection. Reuters reports that the challenger denies trying to confuse voters or divert the incumbent’s support.

Trump removed any mystery about his role on October 23: “I’m the one that said do it.” Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who supports the incumbent, said DOJ “should never have filed this lawsuit.” Her objection was that Alaska had already distinguished the candidates. Supporting Sullivan apparently does not require supporting every federal service offered with his reelection.

If the court grants the requested relief and its conditions occur, Alaskans would wait for certification while the government investigates what some voters meant. The administration calls that protecting the electorate. Its proposed trigger still requires checking one particular man’s result before deciding that the electorate needs protection.