AG Todd Blanche vows to keep fighting ‘tooth and nail’ to subvert Alaska’s election results

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) fight to stop Alaska from certifying its Senate race results if Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) isn’t reelected will continue, Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday, despite a court ruling* blocking DOJ from interfering in the state’s elections.

Blanche’s comments are the latest signal that the administration and the GOP will mount a lengthy campaign to try to subvert Alaska’s election results if they lose the state’s closely-fought Senate race, which could determine control of the chamber.

“The Department of Justice has been fighting tooth and nail to stop this process,” Blanche said on Fox News Tuesday, “and we’re not going to stop the fight even after today.”

DOJ filed a notice of appeal shortly after U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason’s Sunday ruling, dismissing the department’s lawsuit over the issue. But it hasn’t yet followed up.

DOJ alleged in its lawsuit that the presence of a candidate on the ballot with a similar name to Sullivan, Daniel J. Sullivan, could lead to “voter confusion,” calling the results into question if Democrat Mary Peltola wins. The lawsuit serves the Trump administration’s broader agenda to undermine states’ authority over elections, and to subvert the will of Alaskan voters in one of the country’s key midterm races for Republicans.

Blanche’s comments are in sync with those of several GOP politicians – including Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) – who have suggested they may try to block Peltola from being seated.

The Justice Department wants to not only block Alaska’s Senate race results if Sen. Sullivan loses, but also demands that the state segregate all ballots that aren’t cast for the Republican incumbent.

Alaska’s ranked choice voting system would mitigate voter confusion about the two Sullivans on the ballot because it allows voters to choose and rank multiple candidates – meaning a voter could pick both Sullivans if they were uncertain about which one they wanted to vote for. The ballot also clearly distinguishes between the incumbent senator and the other candidate.

However, Blanche claimed on Fox News, without explanation, that the ranked choice system adds to the confusion.

“Because of ranked-based voting, it’s clear that voters were confused,” Blanche said. “That’s why you need to preserve the ballots because you need to look at the individual ballots potentially to see if there was voter confusion – to see if it’s obvious from the ballot itself that the voter intended to vote for Sen. Sullivan but was confused because of the fraud that’s taken place there.”

It is not clear how anyone could determine voters’ intentions by preserving their ballots without violating state ballot privacy laws.

Asked about this, Blanche said that preservation would “allow the documents and the ballots to be in place” for the Alaskan government to investigate.

*The Elias Law Group (ELG) represents the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in this case. ELG Firm Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.