Trump Seeks to Set Aside ‘Decoy Dan’ Alaska Senate Ballots

Alaska’s Republican-controlled government asked a federal judge Saturday to throw out a lawsuit brought at President Donald Trump’s urging that seeks to block certification of a potential Democratic victory in the state’s closely watched U.S. Senate contest. In its filing, the state said there was “no reason for this Court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any longer.”

The forceful response from Alaska’s attorney general came after U.S. District Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason set Saturday as the deadline for arguments on whether the case should be dismissed before any hearing takes place.

The U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit has drawn widespread criticism from election law specialists. It asks Gleason to delay certification of a potential win by Democrat Mary Peltola while the court examines whether voters were misled by a second candidate whose name matched that of Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, Peltola’s primary opponent.

On Friday, the Justice Department expanded its request, asking the court to set aside every ballot marked for the second Dan Sullivan. The department said those votes should be separated while officials determine whether voters mistakenly backed a spoiler candidate.

Alaska officials called that proposal “both disturbing and impossible” in Saturday’s filing. They argued that identifying those ballots would not be possible without compromising the privacy of individual voters.

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Trump has also called for Peltola to face prosecution. His demand followed a New York Times report that internal messages and social media posts seemingly indicate the Democratic campaign played a role in encouraging the second Sullivan—a retired teacher from the remote fishing community of Petersburg—to enter the race.

Here’s the latest on the ‘Decoy Dan’ scandal in the ongoing Alaska Senate race:

The state countered that the ballot clearly differentiates between the two candidates. The senator appears as a Republican and the incumbent, while the other candidate is identified only as “Daniel J. Sullivan.”

“State officials carefully designed the ballot to minimize voter confusion,” Alaska representatives wrote. They urged the judge to dismiss the lawsuit permanently and permit the state to complete the election process—including counting ballots and certifying the results—without what they called unwarranted federal intervention.