Judge Tosses DOJ Suit to Delay Alaska Senate Certification Over the Two Dan Sullivans

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A federal judge on Sunday threw out the Justice Department's lawsuit seeking to segregate ballots and delay certification of Alaska's U.S. Senate race, the latest legal rebuke to the Trump administration's efforts to intervene in the 2026 midterms, CNN reported.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled that the federal government does not have standing to force Alaska to segregate ballots, that such a move would violate voters' right to cast a secret ballot, and that it is too late for courts to force so major a change on the eve of an election. "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," Gleason wrote. She added that ordering segregation would itself confuse voters: such late-breaking changes to election rules, she wrote, are strongly disfavored.

The administration had argued that the presence of a second candidate with nearly the incumbent's name - Daniel J. Sullivan, running against Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan - warranted a court-ordered investigation if the senator lost to Democrat Mary Peltola. The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal on Sunday. "Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes," a department spokesperson said. President Donald Trump, asked about the ruling as he landed in Iowa for a campaign rally on Sunday, said he had not heard about it, but described the department's case as "one of the most meritful things" and "a very important lawsuit."

The Alaska race was roiled this week by a New York Times report with new details about Democratic involvement in getting Daniel J. Sullivan onto the ballot, in a contest that could determine which party controls the Senate. While the civil case played out, the Justice Department accelerated a criminal probe into the alleged efforts, and Alaska's Republican governor ordered an investigation while suggesting he could oppose certification depending on its results. State officials and groups opposing the suit argued that election administrators included several identifiers on the ballot to distinguish the two Sullivans and that the department offered no evidence voters were confused. The ruling follows two more setbacks for the administration on Friday: an appeals court rejected a Justice Department demand that California set aside ballots from 20,000 people the administration claims could be noncitizens, and U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson imposed a sweeping emergency order restricting the department and the Department of Homeland Security from demanding that officials in any state segregate ballots, purge voters or halt ballot processing - an order the department has also appealed.