Court denies Peltola campaign access to information on rejected mail ballots

An Alaska judge has denied Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign* access to more information on why some voters’ mail ballots were rejected by the state’s Division of Elections (DOE).

In a Wednesday order, Alaska Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews said that he denied the campaign’s request, in part, because the DOE is too busy counting ballots in the contentious Senate race. 

“The Division is actively in the middle of counting ballots,” Matthews wrote. “It has active deadlines it must meet. The Division asserts its staff is actively working long hours to accomplish its fundamental responsibility — administering elections. The timing of the Campaign’s request could simply not be worse.”

The Alaska race is the final Senate contest of the 2026 midterms that has yet to be called. Though Democrats will have a commanding majority in the next Senate, President Donald Trump is nonetheless pushing to interfere with the vote counting to ensure incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) wins the race. Most recently, he has called for every vote cast against Peltola to be given to the incumbent, alleging that two other candidates — including a second one named Daniel Sullivan — had been put up by Democrats to confuse voters.

With Peltola ahead by just a few thousand votes as of Thursday morning and many precincts still counting ballots, the race remains too close to call — but Peltola has a clearer path to victory than Sullivan.

Because of the closeness of the race, Peltola’s campaign asked the DOE for information on rejected mail ballots, including the voters’ names and the reason their ballot was rejected. Last week, the campaign sued the state, alleging that it never received a response from the DOE.

“Plaintiff cannot ensure that its voters’ lawful votes were properly counted without knowing whose absentee ballots were rejected or questioned, and why,” the lawsuit stated. “With the counting of absentee ballots and review by the questioned ballot board currently in progress, and certification deadlines rapidly approaching, each hour and each day that Defendants deny Plaintiff the requested records to which it is entitled costs Plaintiff the opportunity to help ensure that qualified voters have their ballots counted.”

During a hearing on the lawsuit, the DOE said that it had “already provided” the names of absentee voters, but that it could not provide the names of those whose ballots were rejected and the reasons why because “any rejection determination at this stage in the count is necessarily preliminary.”

Peltola’s campaign sought access to a “details report” that the DOE produces that includes the names and “rejection codes” of rejected mail ballots. The campaign argued it should be given access to these reports under Alaska’s public records law. 

But the DOE said that those reports aren’t public records because they aren’t final determinations of rejected mail ballots. Though the state can make the reports available to campaigns, it isn’t obligated to.

Matthews agreed.

“In the Court’s view, the details report… are [sic] not public records and thus not subject to disclosure under [Alaska’s public records law],” he wrote. “Public records are records ‘that are preserved for their informational value or as evidence of the organization or operation of the public agency.’”

He added that because the DOE is so busy processing ballots, “it is understandable that the Division simply lacks the capacity to generate the report… at Plaintiff’s behest. Such electronic services are not mandatory, but permissive.”

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