GSA (Anchorage courthouse archive; public domain; crop).
A federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s challenge to Alaska’s U.S. Senate election on Sunday, ruling that the government had not shown the court could provide a lawful remedy for its claim that two similarly named candidates would confuse voters.
U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason’s 20-page dismissal order closed the case without deciding whether the alleged voter-confusion scheme had occurred. The Justice Department told Fox News in a Sunday statement that it plans to file a notice of appeal. An announced appeal is not a ruling reversing the dismissal.
The lawsuit concerns incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and challenger Daniel J. Sullivan, whose candidacy the department alleges could draw votes intended for the incumbent. The department sought to block certification of a result affected by that alleged confusion while investigators determined voters’ intentions.
Gleason ruled that the government had not explained how that investigation could work while protecting the secrecy of voters’ ballots. Ballots already cast had been separated from voters’ identifying information and mixed together, the order said.
The judge also rejected the premise that an order preserving ballots would fix the alleged injury, noting that Alaska law already requires ballots in federal elections to be kept for 22 months. She warned against changing election procedures just before the November 3 vote.
The complaint was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the court did not decide the underlying allegations on their merits. Gleason nevertheless denied permission to amend it again in this case, and denied the pending requests for expedited discovery and a preliminary injunction as moot.
The department’s statement maintained that its allegations had not been rejected on their merits and said it intended to appeal. No filed notice of appeal was independently verified for this report.
JBizNews Desk | Anchorage, Alaska
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