DOJ sues to block Alaska US Senate results if Republican incumbent loses
The Trump administration has preemptively filed a lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska’s US Senate election if the Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan loses in the critical contest which could decide the balance of power in the Senate.
The lawsuit represents the latest attempt of the Trump Justice Department to insert itself in the administration of elections, running up against the minimal role the Constitution gives the Executive Branch. It alleges that a candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan could confuse voters and wants a court to potentially delay the certification of the election if the incumbent is defeated but would have won if “all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan” had “been cast instead for Senator Sullivan.”
Trump took credit for the legal challenge.
“Well, I’m the one that said ‘do it,’” Trump told reporters in Florida on Friday when asked about the lawsuit. The president has regularly complained about the presence of the non-incumbent Sullivan on the ballot.
The lawsuit is based on a “strange and unusual” legal theory, said Derek Muller, an election law professor at Notre Dame Law School. It’s also unclear, he said, how a court could intervene in the way the DOJ proposes.
In June, ahead of the state’s primary, the Alaska state Supreme Court ruled that Daniel J. Sullivan should be included on the ballot after the state’s Division of Elections had removed him.
The lawsuit represents the latest attempt of the Trump Justice Department to insert itself in the administration of elections, running up against the minimal role the Constitution gives the Executive Branch. It alleges that a candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan could confuse voters and wants a court to potentially delay the certification of the election if the incumbent is defeated but would have won if “all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan” had “been cast instead for Senator Sullivan.”
Trump took credit for the legal challenge.
“Well, I’m the one that said ‘do it,’” Trump told reporters in Florida on Friday when asked about the lawsuit. The president has regularly complained about the presence of the non-incumbent Sullivan on the ballot.
The lawsuit is based on a “strange and unusual” legal theory, said Derek Muller, an election law professor at Notre Dame Law School. It’s also unclear, he said, how a court could intervene in the way the DOJ proposes.
In June, ahead of the state’s primary, the Alaska state Supreme Court ruled that Daniel J. Sullivan should be included on the ballot after the state’s Division of Elections had removed him.
