Peltola Campaign Sues Alaska for Rejected Ballot Records
With the Senate race within 600 votes, the Democratic challenger seeks data on denied absentee ballots while the state argues the request would slow processing.
By Jason Kovalenko ·
Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign filed a lawsuit against the state of Alaska on November 6 to secure access to records for rejected absentee ballots.
The new court filing alleges that the Alaska Division of Elections has denied the campaign’s multiple requests for this data. The complaint states that the plaintiff cannot verify if lawful votes were counted without knowing which absentee ballots were rejected or questioned. It argues that every hour of denied access reduces the campaign’s ability to ensure qualified voters have their ballots counted.
The race between Peltola and Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan is extremely close. According to Decision Desk HQ, Peltola leads by just over 600 votes with approximately 30 percent of the vote still outstanding. No winner has been projected as of Saturday morning, November 7. The Division responded to the suit on Friday, noting that voters whose ballots were rejected do not yet have access to that information. Therefore, the agency contends the campaign should not have access yet. A division release stated that Alaska’s constitution and laws do not mandate providing the information in the manner requested. It warned that releasing preliminary data could create additional burdens during processing and delay the timely counting of votes.
This is not the first legal challenge in the Alaska Senate contest. The Trump administration previously sued to block certification if Sullivan lost, arguing that a candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. could confuse voters. A judge dismissed that case before Election Day, though the administration promised an appeal. Vote counting in Alaska will continue for several days because ballots mailed from outside the country can arrive up to 15 days after the election if postmarked by November 3. More votes do not have to be reported until November 10, but agencies may release them incrementally before then. Final votes must be reported by November 18. If no candidate holds more than 50 percent of the vote by that deadline, the state will conduct an instant runoff using ranked choice voting. This process eliminates the last-place candidate and redistributes their voters’ subsequent preferences until a majority is reached. A victory for Peltola would mark the eighth Senate flip for Democrats following Tuesday night’s results. Counting is also ongoing in Mississippi, where Democrat Scott Colom leads incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The lawsuit positions the campaign’s need for transparency against the state’s concern for processing speed. The Division maintains that providing the records now would interfere with ballot handling. The campaign asserts that the records are essential to validating the election outcome. The legal battle adds another layer of scrutiny to a race decided by a narrow margin.
