Justice Department Asks Judge to Set Aside Every Alaska Ballot Ranking the Second Dan Sullivan as Prosecutors Confirm a Criminal Probe

The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge to order Alaska election officials, before Monday, to set aside every ballot that ranks U.S. Senate candidate Daniel J. Sullivan, as federal prosecutors confirmed a criminal investigation into allegations that Democrats recruited him to confuse voters, NBC News and The Guardian reported.

The allegations center on a New York Times report this week that Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign was involved in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher with no political experience, to run against Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, the two-term incumbent. Peltola has denied any involvement. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has said it was "not involved with Dan J. Sullivan," according to NBC News. No one has been charged.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote that state officials should "preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary," NBC News reported. "These modest precautionary measures will be impossible after Election Day, so there is good cause for expedited consideration," he wrote.

The filing did not explain how reviewing a ballot would show whether a voter was confused, NBC News noted. Alaska uses ranked choice voting, and there are four Senate candidates on the ballot. The incumbent is listed as "Sullivan, Dan S. (Registered Republican) Incumbent" and the challenger as "Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.," according to The Guardian.

Woodward and U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman made three other filings Friday in the civil case the administration filed last week, which seeks to block Alaska from certifying the Senate result. One asks for expedited sharing of the Peltola campaign's "internal and external conversations" about recruiting Sullivan; another seeks the same from the DSCC; a third asks for a preliminary injunction, NBC News reported. The Guardian reported that the injunction would block certification if the incumbent loses to Peltola because of the second Sullivan's presence on the ballot.

At a news conference in Anchorage, Heyman acknowledged a parallel criminal case. He cited the Times reporting, saying it suggested the Peltola campaign and national Democrats had "orchestrated a sprawling conspiracy to recruit and prop up Daniel J Sullivan as a sham candidate," according to The Guardian. "We are taking that extremely seriously," he said. "This new information has resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska."

Heyman declined to say what crimes are under investigation. "Because this is an ongoing investigative matter, we can't discuss the specifics of those investigative steps, and who or may or may not be involved," he said, according to NBC News. The Guardian noted that it is highly unusual for federal prosecutors to publicly confirm an open criminal investigation. The Justice Department had issued at least three dozen subpoenas and document preservation requests as of Thursday, including to the campaign offices of Peltola and of Dan J. Sullivan, NBC News reported.

Peltola rejected the accusations. "I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent," she said Thursday in Juneau, according to The Guardian. At a rally Friday, she said she was "so deeply offended by these accusations" and added, "I want fewer candidates in the primary. I'm not out soliciting more competition," NBC News reported.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, separately announced plans for a state criminal investigation, saying the report revealed "disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska's elections," according to The Guardian. Before the August primary, state election authorities tried to disqualify the second Sullivan, but the Alaska Supreme Court ruled he could appear on the ballot. He finished among the top four in the nonpartisan primary.

President Donald Trump has said Dan J. Sullivan should be removed from the ballot. "I don't know how he can win here because you're splitting up the vote illegally. I think it's a total fraud," Trump said Friday on Kansas City radio, according to NBC News. On Thursday he said Peltola "actually should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted," The Guardian reported.

The incumbent has told supporters how to rank. "So rank me first, Sullivan, Dan S. Registered Republican incumbent," Sen. Sullivan said on Fox News, according to NBC News. He told voters to rank Republican Gerald Heikes second and "the fake guy third," and not to rank Peltola.

The race could help decide control of the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats to Democrats' 47, The Guardian noted, and recent polls have shown Peltola leading. Elections in Alaska are run by state officials under state law.

Still unknown: what evidence the Times report and the subpoenas rest on, whether a judge will grant the ballot order before Monday, and what crimes, if any, prosecutors believe were committed.