Alaska Ballot Scheme Probe Puts Voter Trust on Trial

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy ordered the state Department of Public Safety to investigate the Alaska ballot scheme, after a New York Times report alleged that aides to Democrat Mary Peltola and Democratic operatives recruited a candidate who shares the name of Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan. Dunleavy announced the probe on Wednesday night, saying the evidence would determine whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted, according to reports of his statement. The governor framed the case as a question of voter trust, arguing that voters have a right to cast ballots for the candidate they truly intend to support. The New York Post and the Juneau Independent both covered Dunleavy's announcement on Thursday.

The Times report, published Wednesday, described an effort that began last summer, when Democratic operative Jerid Kurtz traveled to Alaskan communities to recruit residents to run as Republicans, according to the report. Former Peltola campaign manager Elisa Rios told the Times that the operation aimed to place a second Sullivan on the ballot, then later tried to retract her interviews, the report said. The recruit who agreed was Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg who supported Peltola's candidacy. Rios also implicated Peltola's former chief of staff Anton McParland and operatives connected with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to the Washington Examiner's account of the Times reporting. Both the Peltola campaign and the committee deny any role in the Alaska ballot scheme, with a campaign spokesperson saying the campaign had no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.

The Alaska ballot scheme did not arrive out of nowhere. State election officials had already wrestled with the Dan J. Sullivan candidacy months earlier. Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher removed him from the ballot, calling him a sham candidate whose purpose was to trick voters. The Alaska Supreme Court overruled that decision, ruling that the state's authority covers constitutional requirements such as age and residency, not a candidate's intentions. The Division of Elections had investigated similar concerns in June, Dunleavy said, and he argued the new reporting supported its findings. The federal Justice Department separately sued to block certification of the Senate race if Dan J. Sullivan remained on the ballot, according to the Center Square, and President Donald Trump said the department should pursue that case. Senator Lisa Murkowski called the plan a pattern of lies and coverups, according to the Washington Sun's account.

The court already settled the ballot question

Election experts cited by the Juneau Independent say the Alaska ballot scheme tactic is common and generally legal, which leaves the governor's probe on uncertain ground as a criminal matter. Dunleavy did not specify which laws may have been broken, a gap noted in coverage of his announcement. That gap is the first reason to read the probe as a political signal as much as a legal step: it puts the recruitment effort on the public record, even if prosecutors later find no charge fits. Voters, not courts, will decide what to make of a recruitment drive that party officials denied for months and that a former campaign manager described on the record before trying to take it back.

Both parties have used the same playbook

The second reason the outrage lands unevenly is history. When Peltola ran for reelection to the House two years ago, the state Republican Party legally backed a Democrat on the ballot who had just begun a two-decade prison sentence in another state, according to the Washington Sun's account. That candidate is on the ballot again this year, the outlet reported. Democrats pointing to that episode are not inventing a precedent, and Republicans pointing to the Sullivan recruitment are not inventing a grievance. Each side has treated ballot lines as terrain to be shaped, then condemned the other side for shaping them. The Alaska ballot scheme looks different once that precedent is in view.

That symmetry is what makes the Alaska ballot scheme worth watching beyond one Senate race. If the probe produces evidence of coordination that crossed a specific statute, it will matter as law enforcement. If it produces only a fuller public record of who called whom, it will still matter as disclosure, because voters in a state with an open ballot system can claim any party label without party vetting, as the Daily Caller noted, and similar names on a crowded ballot do real work whether anyone admits intent or not.

Four candidates will appear on the November general election ballot in the race: Peltola, the incumbent Dan S. Sullivan, Dan J. Sullivan, and Gerald Heikes. The ballot itself will not explain which Sullivan any voter meant to choose. That silence is the point of the probe, and the reason the story will outlast the election cycle: a system that lets names do the persuading needs voters who check the middle initial.