Lawsuit: Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola's Campaign Wants Names of Rejected Absentee Voters

U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s (D-AK) campaign is taking legal action to find out the names of rejected absentee voters as the heated midterm race continues in Alaska. Her campaign filed the suit on Friday against the Alaska Division of Elections in Anchorage Superior Court, the Alaska Beacon reported. The point of the legal action was to reveal the names of voters whose absentee ballots were tossed out by the division. “Alaskans for Mary has asked for expedited consideration and is requesting both an injunction and temporary restraining order that could expose the names before the election is certified later this month,” the article read. The campaign claimed it was working to have transparency, timeliness, and accuracy as officials were still counting votes. The report continued: According to the suit, the campaign filed a public records request seeking “a copy of the absentee register showing the accept or reject code for each absentee ballot… or any other documents sufficient to show the identities of voters whose absentee ballots… have been rejected as well as the reasons for each rejection.” The request by Alaskans for Mary — the main organization boosting Peltola’s challenge to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan — comes just days after the group argued in federal court in a different case that “Alaskans’ bedrock rights (include) the right to cast secret ballots, the right to cast ballots that will not be retroactively invalidated, and the right to be treated equally to other voters.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) has claimed that Peltola and other Democrats misled a federal court regarding a scheme to find a second Daniel Sullivan candidate to appear on the ballot against Peltola and Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-AK), Breitbart News reported in October. President Donald Trump said Thursday that Sen. Sullivan should be given the vote totals for the other candidate named Dan J. Sullivan out of fairness. “The vote totals for the Fake Dan Sullivan, plus the other ‘slug’ that the Dems put on the Ballot, should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over — He easily wins. There is no other fair solution! President DJT,” he wrote in a Truth Social post. Fox & Friends reported early Saturday that Peltola was holding a narrow lead over Dan Sullivan: In regard to the lawsuit, officials with the Alaska Department of Law said there was no requirement forcing state authorities to hand over the information, per Alaska Public Media. “Because the information is preliminary, subject to change, and not yet available to affected voters, the Division does not distribute the records separately or allow observers to retain them,” their statement read.