Trump's Justice Department sues to halt Alaska Senate certification

The Department of Justice is demanding that a federal court hold the certification of the Alaska U.S. Senate race until it investigates a potential ballot confusion issue. This legal move marks the first instance since the Civil Rights era where the federal government has sued to halt an election certification, a duty the Constitution assigns to the states. The suit was filed late last week after President Donald Trump directed his administration to preemptively contest a possible Republican loss in the race.

The department is arguing that voters may have been confused by the presence of two candidates with the same name, Dan Sullivan, on the ballot. One is the incumbent Republican senator, and the other is a Democratic candidate recruited by Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman. Trump followed the lawsuit by calling for the prosecution of Peltola. He also announced a $1 million bounty for anyone who provides proof of prior or current voter fraud, though it remained unclear how he intended to fulfill that promise.

Academics and legal experts note that this action elevates the president's long-standing rhetoric about rigged elections into concrete executive power. Trump has used midterm rallies to criticize election officials by name and label the ranked choice voting system in Alaska a scam. However, the certification lawsuit signals a shift from words to action as his party struggles to maintain control of Congress.

Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN on Sunday that the department did not want to intervene in elections but had no choice in this specific case. He stated, “We are not doing anything improper,” and added that President Trump is not trying to take over a state election in any way. Trump told reporters that he pushed for the lawsuit, saying, “I’m the one that said do it.”

Republican allies in Alaska have expressed mixed feelings about the federal intervention. Senator Lisa Murkowski said the administration “should never have filed” the suit. The state’s Republican-controlled government filed court papers to try to have the case dismissed. Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame, called the legal argument “one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen.” He described the administration's conduct as “impulsive rather than strategic and planned.”

The Justice Department has also sued California and Washington in recent weeks. In California, the department alleged the state had 20,000 noncitizens on its rolls and sought to block ballot counting. A federal judge rejected those demands on Wednesday. In Washington, the department made a similar demand regarding about 400 voters. Both states argued the federal demands arrived too close to the election to be fulfilled.

Theresa Lee, a senior attorney with the ACLU, noted that her group has been preparing for this scenario for at least a year and a half. She said, “We've been preparing for just as long, if not longer.” Early voting has proceeded quietly, with about 35 million Americans already casting ballots without notable disruption. Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth, warned that the threat of un undone actions could occur before courts have a chance to weigh in.