Trump admin. sues to block Alaska Senate certification if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses

… {"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","articleBody":"The Trump administration is suing to block certification of the Alaska Senate race if incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan does not win reelection \u2014 but would have won if votes for the other GOP Alaska Senate candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan, were counted for the incumbent.\u00a0The government alleges that candidate Daniel J. Sullivan deliberately sought to confuse voters by running with the same ballot name and party affiliation as incumbent senator, potentially diverting votes \u2014 and benefiting Democratic challenger former Rep. Mary Peltola.Sen. Sullivan, Daniel J. Sullivan and Peltola and another Republican, Gerald Heikes, are on the general election ballot, which will be decided by ranked-choice voting.\u00a0In their court filing Friday, the Justice Department argued that allowing Daniel J. Sullivan to be on the ballot \"threatens to mislead Alaskan citizens who want to vote for Senator Sullivan\" and said that some of his supporters \"likely will inadvertently vote for Daniel J. Sullivan.\" The department said that the senator\u0027s other supporters \"likely will be confused as to how to rank the three Republican candidates as to defeat Peltola\" and \"might not rank Senator Sullivan at all.\"\u00a0Although Alaska courts permitted Daniel J. Sullivan to remain on the ballot, the Justice Department argues that certifying an election result impacted by this confusion would violate the National Voter Registration Act.The DOJ complaint asks the federal court to block certification if Sen. Sullivan loses, but would have won had the other Sullivan\u0027s votes been counted for him, pending an investigation into voter intent.Alaska voted to change its election system in 2020, and first implemented ranked choice voting in 2022. Its move away from party primaries was an attempt to curtail polarization. The state has seen unusual election outcomes in the past, notably in 2010, when Sen. Lisa Murkowski won her reelection bid on a write-in campaign, after her defeat in the GOP primary.\u00a0","dateModified":"2026-10-23T11:44:32-0400","articleSection":["Politics"],"author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nicole Sganga","url":"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/team\/nicole-sganga\/","description":"Nicole Sganga is CBS News\u0027 homeland security and justice correspondent. She is based in Washington, D.C., and reports for all shows and platforms.\r\n\r\nThroughout her 10 years at CBS News, and most recently as homeland security and justice reporter, Sganga embedded with U.S. Coast Guard rescue missions in the Florida Straits, documented conditions at immigration processing centers dotting the Southwest border, tracked the spiraling implications of cyberattacks on the U.S. healthcare system and reported from outside the U.S. Capitol during the January 6th insurrection.\r\n\r\nShe helped lead CBS News investigations into the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, law enforcement\u0027s systemic failures in responding to the Uvalde shooting, black market marijuana and the rise of fentanyl trafficking. Sganga also tracked federal hate crimes, domestic violence extremism and gun legislation reform efforts in her role. She reported from inside the court during the civil trial for the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally that condemned two-dozen white supremacists and neo-Nazi organizations.\r\n\r\nIn 2023, Sganga made her network debut on five broadcasts while reporting on a fatal crash that killed eight Venezuelan nationals in search of the American dream outside a migrant shelter in South Texas. Sganga operated as a multimedia journalist on that breaking news story, serving as cameraperson, audio tech, producer and correspondent.\r\n\r\nAs a campaign reporter for CBS News, Sganga covered the 2020 reelection campaign of President Trump and filed on-the-ground reporting from more than three dozen rallies. While covering the 2020 New Hampshire primary, Sganga interviewed more than 20 candidates and countless voters on issues ranging from health care to immigration to voting rights.\r\n\r\nAs a digital journalist in her first role at CBS News, Sganga traveled to more than two dozen states and territories to report on breaking news events including Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Maria, the Route 91 Harvest music festival shooting in Las Vegas, the Capitol Gazette shooting, the Sutherland Springs shooting and more.\r\n\r\nAs a fellow for the New York Times, she filed columns detailing the lack of health care and education inside Rohingya internment camps in western Myanmar (formerly Burma). \r\n\r\nSganga graduated from the University of Notre Dame as a Hesburgh-Yusko scholar and was included in the 2019 Domer Dozen class of outstanding alumni. She earned her LLM in International Human Rights Law at Oxford University and is a member of New College. She is a proud native of Long Island."}],"mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/trump-admin-sues-to-block-alaska-senate-certification-if-sen-dan-sullivan-loses\/","inLanguage ":"en","name":"Trump admin. sues to block Alaska Senate certification if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses","headline":"Trump admin. sues to block Alaska Senate certification if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses","description":"The Justice Department is asking the federal court to block certification if Sen. Sullivan loses, but would have won had the other Sullivan\u0027s votes been counted for him.","isAccessibleForFree":true},"headline":"Trump admin. sues to block Alaska Senate certification if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses","description":"The Justice Department is asking the federal court to block certification if Sen. Sullivan loses, but would have won had the other Sullivan\u0027s votes been counted for him.","url":"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/trump-admin-sues-to-block-alaska-senate-certification-if-sen-dan-sullivan-loses\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","height":630,"width":1200,"url":"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/10\/23\/b77dc557-6c98-4d9f-80e8-d3a41c0a530a\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/f4dd9d42021bd530a86fe6d3bd74b271\/gettyimages-2298824019.jpg"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/10\/23\/b77dc557-6c98-4d9f-80e8-d3a41c0a530a\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/f4dd9d42021bd530a86fe6d3bd74b271\/gettyimages-2298824019.jpg","keywords":["United States Senate","Alaska"],"datePublished":"2026-10-23T11:42:00-0400","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/","name":"CBS News"},"alternativeHeadline":"DOJ sues to block Alaska Senate certification if Sullivan loses"} …