Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Wednesday night that he has ordered an investigation into whether Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign should face criminal or civil penalties over its alleged scheme to recruit an outside candidate.

The announcement followed President Donald Trump calling for criminal prosecution of Peltola after The New York Times reported an alleged effort by Democrats to recruit a Senate candidate with the same first and last name as incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. The scheme was meant to create confusion among voters and draw votes away from the incumbent in a key Senate race, according to the report.

Dunleavy, a Republican, said Alaskans “have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support.”

“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” he said in a post on X.

In the Times report, Peltola’s former campaign manager and longtime aide Elisa Rios said Peltola was not directly involved in the project but was “definitely aware” of it. Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said they had “no involvement” in recruiting Dan J. Sullivan to enter the race.

This wouldn’t be the first time a candidate had engaged in “ballot stacking” to bolster their chances. As the Times noted, “Ballot-stacking tactics are common in politics and generally considered legal — and have been employed by both parties in Alaska. But this operation, which has not been reported before, reveals the lengths to which Democrats went to seek advantage in a Senate race that could determine control of the chamber.”

Dunleavy on Wednesday referred to a June investigation by the Alaska Division of Elections, which found Dan J. Sullivan ineligible to run for the Senate seat after receiving complaints that he filed to run with the intent to mislead voters. The Alaska Supreme Court later overturned that decision, affirming a superior court order that Sullivan could remain on the ballot after he appealed the decision made by state election officials.

Trump has called for Peltola to drop out of the race over the spoiler candidate controversy.

“I think she should be prosecuted criminally for what she did, and I think that the people that participated with her should,” Trump said ahead of a rally in Ohio on Wednesday. “They swore and they, in all statements, that they knew nothing about it.”

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit last week against Alaska election officials seeking to block the results of the Senate race if incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses by a margin that he could have overcome had votes cast for Dan J. Sullivan gone to him instead. The DOJ argued Dan J. Sullivan launched a bid for the Senate with the “sole purpose” of benefiting Peltola. On Wednesday, the DOJ informed the court that it was withdrawing its opposition to the Peltola campaign’s motion to intervene in the case.

“The United States intends to seek expedited discovery from the Campaign regarding the reported conspiracy, including as to whether the Campaign attempted to deceive the Court by seeking an expedited ruling on a motion to dismiss when the Campaign may have been aware of the New York Times reporting before it was published,” lawyers for the Department of Justice wrote in the filing. This came after Alaska election officials filed a motion Monday asking Judge Sharon Gleason to immediately dismiss the case, arguing that it had “no legal basis.”

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski also reacted to the Times report on Wednesday, calling the alleged scheme “simply wrong.”

“While some may try to write this off as just how politics works now, ballot-stacking should have no place in our electoral process,” she said in a post on X. “Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign — what has been revealed is a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception that belongs nowhere in our elections or among our elected officials.”

Both Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and Dan J. Sullivan will remain on the ballot, as voting is well underway in a race that could determine control of the Senate.

“Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable,” Dunleavy said. “The evidence will determine what happens next.”

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