Todd Blanche misuses the Justice Department in Alaska Senate suit
By Adele Rutherford · Reporting from Atlanta ·
Attorney General Todd Blanche filed a suit to block Alaska election certification, misusing federal power to override state courts and subvert the election process.
The United States Department of Justice has no business telling the state of Alaska how to count its votes. Attorney General Todd Blanche has filed a lawsuit to block the certification of the U.S. Senate election if Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan loses. Certification is the formal process where election officials verify vote totals and declare a winner. According to BBC and CNBC reporting, the Justice Department claims that the presence of two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the ballot will confuse voters. This is a legal fiction used to justify a political intervention. The lawsuit is wrong because it ignores a prior state court ruling and attempts to seize control of a state process without a statutory mandate.
A suit built on a void
The Justice Department filed this action on October 22. It seeks to prevent Alaska from certifying results if Senator Sullivan loses by a margin smaller than the votes cast for the other Sullivan. The other candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan, is a retired teacher. The lawsuit cites the National Voter Registration Act as its legal basis. This act is a federal law intended to increase voter registration and protect the right to vote.
The government argues that the second Sullivan is a "scam" intended to benefit Democrat Mary Peltola. Associate Attorney General Stanley E Woodward Jr asserted that the candidacy would "distort the will of Alaskan voters." However, the record shows that the Alaska Supreme Court already addressed this in June. That court affirmed the decision to keep Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot. It directed election officials to distinguish between the two men.
The ballot does exactly that. It lists Senator Dan Sullivan as the "incumbent" and "Republican." Daniel J. Sullivan has no party registration. Despite this, Todd Blanche told CNN that "there could be a crime." When pressed by Dana Bash to name the crime, he could not. He simply repeated that Alaskans would be confused. This is not a legal argument. It is a placeholder for a political goal.
The failure of the integrity argument
The strongest case for the government is that the federal government has a duty to ensure election integrity. An advocate would argue that the National Voter Registration Act allows the DOJ to intervene when a state fails to protect the process. They would say that two candidates with the same name create an inherent fraud that the state cannot cure.
That argument fails because the "confusion" is a choice made by the voters, not a failure of the law. The state court already weighed the facts and ruled. For the DOJ to intervene 11 days before polls close on November 3 is not an act of oversight. It is an act of interference.
Legal scholars agree the claim is hollow. Richard H Pildes of New York University called it one of the weakest election lawsuits he has ever seen. Derek Mueller of the University of Notre Dame stated the legal claim is "absurdly thin." The Democratic Party’s Senate campaign committee and the League of Women Voters of Alaska are now seeking defendant-intervenor status. This is a legal request to join a lawsuit as a party to protect a specific interest. They argue the executive branch lacks the authority to intervene in state-run elections. Even Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, stated the Justice Department should never have filed the suit.
A persistent method of intervention
This is not an isolated event. It is a mechanism. In United States v. Trump, Donald Trump was indicted on four election interference charges before the case was dismissed in November 2024. We see a related mechanism here. President Donald Trump confirmed he personally ordered this litigation. He stated, "I’m the one that said ‘do it.’"
The administration is currently testing the boundaries of executive power in other arenas. Donald Trump recently established a committee of inquiry to investigate Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook. He claims he must ensure laws are "faithfully executed" by investigating her truthfulness. This is the same playbook. The administration creates a novel administrative tool or a thin legal claim to scrutinize an independent figure or a state process. They then use the resulting "investigation" to justify a removal or a block.
The Justice Department is not protecting the voters of Alaska. It is attempting to create a legal trap. If Senator Sullivan loses, the government will use this lawsuit to delay the result. They will then claim the need for an investigation into "confusion" to determine the "real" winner. This is a rejection of the passive virtues of the law. It is an attempt to make the result a product of the process, rather than the process a servant of the result.
The lawsuit is a breach of federalism and a misuse of the Justice Department. By ignoring the Alaska Supreme Court and the clear distinctions on the ballot, the administration has admitted that "integrity" is merely a word for "outcome." The court should dismiss this action immediately. Any other result suggests that the law is not a rule, but a tool for the person who holds the gavel.
Sources
- Politico: Blanche on Alaska suit: 'There could be a crime'
- CNN: Blanche defends lawsuit to block certification of Alaska Senate results if GOP incumbent loses
- The Guardian: Blanche defends DoJ’s preemptive suit to block Alaska Senate results certification
- CNBC: Democrats, voting-rights groups challenge Trump's bid to block Alaska Senate certification
- BBC: Trump administration sues to block certification of upcoming Alaska election