This is getting lots of national and international attention already and I don't need to repeat more than the basics. Here's the start of The Guardian article:
"Donald Trump said he ordered the justice department to file a lawsuit to block the certification of Alaska’s US Senate results if the Republican incumbent loses, a move that voting rights experts called an “unprecedented intervention” by the federal government with control of Congress in the balance.
“I’m the one that said do it,” Trump told reporters as he landed in Florida for a campaign rally on Friday."
Some others:
(Several others had paywalls so I won't link them, but you get the picture. This is big news. The first actual salvo of the Trump administration's attempt to overturn elections that don't go his way.)
Basically DOJ has filed suit to invalidate the Alaska Senate election if the sitting Republican Senator Daniel S. Sullivan doesn't win the election on the grounds that another candidate, named Daniel J. Sullivan, will have confused voters into voting for him instead of Daniel S. Sullivan. (I'd note that I wasn't confused after I marked Daniel J. Sullivan as my second choice - my first choice was NOT Daniel S) (Because we have Ranked Choice Voting I can make a second and third choice when I vote. You can even make a fourth choice vote, but I haven't figured out how that would ever matter because one of the candidates would have a majority before it got that far.)
What I can provide are links to nine blog posts I wrote in June and July of this year, where this battle was already fought out in the Alaska Courts and the Alaska Supreme Court ruled the State could not throw Daniel J. Sullivan off the ballot.
I'd also note a couple of other points I didn't see much in the other coverage:
1. The GOP have pushed hard* to get Democrats to vote for Eric Hafner for US Representative instead of Independent Bill Hill. Hafner is a resident of a New York prison.
*"Pushed hard" = sending out millions of dollars worth of flyers and other advertising to push Hafner and other non viable candidates to take votes from leading Democratic candidates.
2. The Alaska Division of Elections initially chose to drop Daniel J. Sullivan on the grounds that he was trying to confuse the voters (not a legal criterion of keeping someone off the ballot). There is a good chance that the Republican led State and State Division of Elections won't challenge the DOJ lawsuit and simply invalidate the election. What happens then?
Here are the posts I did in June and July of this year, chronicling how the State tried to keep Daniel J. Sullivan off the ballot and how the Alaska Supreme Court rejected that move.
June 22, 2026 Senator Dan Sullivan Does Not Want To Run Against Dan Sullivan [UPDATE]
June 23, 2026 The Dan J Sullivan Removal From Ballot Hearing
June 25, 2026 Daniel J. Appeal Of Division Of Elections Decision Plays Out In Nearly Empty Court Room
June 26, 2026 It's Almost 7pm -I Can't Find The Sullivan Decision - [Update - His Name Goes Back On The Ballot]
Monday, June 29, 2026 Supreme Court Keeps Daniel J. Sullivan On The Ballot
Tuesday, June 30, 2026 Division of Election's Sample Ballot Leaves Off Daniel J's Party Affiliation
Tuesday, July 07, 2026 Silence [UPDATE: Ballots Printed And Overseas Ballots Sent]
I've already thrown out the flyers supporting Hafner, but I do have one that is in response to those flyers:
My sense is the Republicans are sure the Democrats have put up Daniel J. Sullivan to run for Senate to confuse voters, because that's what they would do. And are doing with other candidates. During the primaries they spent close to a million dollars promoting Outside (of Alaska) candidates like Hafner.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments will be reviewed, not for content (except ads), but for style. Comments with personal insults, rambling tirades, and significant repetition will be deleted. Ads disguised as comments, unless closely related to the post and of value to readers (my call) will be deleted. Click here to learn to put links in your comment.