A federal judge on Sunday dismissed the Department of Justice’s effort to block Alaska’s certification of its U.S. Senate election if GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan loses.

Judge Sharon Gleason, an Alaska federal district court judge, said many voters have already cast their ballots and that there would be no way to determine whether they intended to vote for the incumbent senator or the other Dan Sullivan on the ballot, Daniel J. Sullivan, without violating their privacy.

“More fundamentally, the United States provides no workable plan as to how it proposes to segregate ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan on Election Day and then conduct a court-ordered unspecified “investigation” of those ballots in a manner that would preserve voter secrecy,” she wrote.

Sen. Sullivan said Sunday that he would accept the results of his race in Tuesday’s elections, even if he loses.

“No. I’m going to accept the election results,” the GOP senator said on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked if he would accept results only if he was declared the winner.

Marc Elias, a lawyer representing the campaign of Alaska’s Senate Democratic nominee, Mary Peltola, and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, declared in a statement posted on social media Sunday afternoon: “VICTORY: Federal Court DISMISSES Dept. of Justice lawsuit seeking to prevent Alaska from certifying a U.S. Senate election if Democrat Mary Peltola wins.”

Gleason had permitted Peltola and the DSCC, among others, to join as defendants in the lawsuit.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the dismissal of its suit.

The Trump administration had contended that Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy was motivated entirely by a desire to confuse Alaskan voters and that any result tainted by his inclusion on the ballot would be in violation of the state and its election officials’ alleged duties under the National Voter Registration Act to “protect the integrity of the electoral process.”

Although legal challenges surrounding candidates’ access to or the formatting of ballots are a regular feature of election years, MS NOW could not locate any other instance of the Justice Department filing suit against a state or locality based on that provision of the NVRA.

In June, prior to Alaska’s primary, the Alaska Supreme Court determined Daniel J. Sullivan should be included on the ballot, finding the state’s Division of Elections had “abused its discretion” in removing him from the ballot. The court gave state election officials the right to determine, however, how Daniel J. Sullivan should appear on the ballot consistent with Alaska law. That court has not yet issued a written opinion.

The Alaska decision comes in the wake of reporting by The New York Times that Daniel J. Sullivan was recruited by operatives associated with Peltola, who has been narrowly leading in polls.

Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, told The Times that she and staff from the DSCC were involved in that effort and that Peltola was aware of the operation, even if not directly involved. Rios, who was fired in August, subsequently told The Times that she was retracting her statements and no longer wished to participate in its reporting.

Peltola, her campaign, and the DSCC each have denied any involvement with Daniel J. Sullivan’s decision to run. Peltola said at a campaign event on Thursday that she knew nothing about efforts to put the other Sullivan on the ballot, saying, “I am not interested in tricking voters.”

On Wednesday evening, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy announced an investigation into the effort to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan, while President Trump said Peltola should be criminally prosecuted.

The DOJ’s suit against Alaska also marked its second preemptive lawsuit against a state on the eve of the midterm elections.

Its lawsuit against California — which, earlier this month, refused the DOJ’s demand that it verify the citizenship of roughly 20,000 alleged noncitizens registered to vote and included in a database compiled by the Department of Homeland Security — was filed earlier this month. On Wednesday night, a district court judge denied the DOJ’s request for an order directing California to segregate and prevent the tabulation of any mail ballots cast by anyone in that database, concluding that granting DOJ’s request would violate the Constitution and voting and civil rights statutes.

The Justice Department appeared to have widened its investigation of the controversial Senate candidacy in Alaska in recent days. At least three donors to Daniel J. Sullivan received visits from FBI agents at their homes in rural Alaska in the last three days, MS NOW has learned.

“Once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred. If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger,” wrote Judge David Carter of the Central District of California.

“This Court declines to be a party to such process,” he concluded.

The post Judge dismisses Trump DOJ lawsuit to block certification of Alaska Senate result if Republican loses appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.