Trump administration sues to block possible Democratic win in Alaska

The Justice Department lawsuit raises concerns the administration may be looking to meddle in some of this midterm cycle’s races.

With just more than a week until the pivotal US midterm elections, the US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit to block certification of the results in Alaska’s hotly contested Senate race.

In a lawsuit filed on Thursday, the Justice Department argued that an independent candidate with the same name as the state’s incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, who is currently running for re-election, is purposefully running to mislead voters.

“Given the substantial likelihood that the inclusion of Daniel J Sullivan will confuse or mislead voters looking to cast a vote for Senator Sullivan, and thus distort the will of Alaskan voters, there is a substantial likelihood that a certification of the election will reflect an electoral process that lacked integrity,” the Trump administration’s filing read.

The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to delay certification to allow time for an investigation into “whether votes cast for Daniel J Sullivan were meant to be cast for Senator Sullivan”.

During a visit to Florida on Friday, Trump took credit for the lawsuit after reporters asked about it.

“I’m the one that said ‘do it,'” he told reporters in Fort Myers, Florida.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

The lawsuit raises concerns among Democrats and voting rights groups that the Trump administration may be looking to meddle in some of the upcoming midterm races as Republicans across the United States struggle to push back a growing wave of Democratic support.

The Justice Department, as of late, has taken several actions against Democratic critics of President Donald Trump that have bolstered those worries, including charging a high-ranking Virginia lawmaker, state Senator L Louise Lucas, in a public corruption case and launching a probe into Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar over allegations of immigration fraud. Both have said the actions are politically motivated.

Trump critics have long expressed worries that the Justice Department could seek to block certification of elections the US president’s party loses.

On Wednesday, as Lucas’s indictment was announced, US Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters his agency would not do so unless extreme circumstances warranted such action.

“It is not DOJ’s intention to – and it’s never our intention to – improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process,” Blanche said.

The Brennan Center for Justice’s senior counsel, Lauren Miller Karalunas, said in a statement that election certification is handled by US states and the federal government has “no role” in it.

“Rest assured, state certification processes were created to meet this moment,” Karalunas said. “Centuries ago, state legislatures recognized that bad actors could use the process to manipulate election outcomes. They built in safeguards specifically designed to stop that from happening.”

The Alaska state Supreme Court in June rejected a previous Republican effort to remove Daniel J Sullivan from the ballot. He will appear without a party designation by his name, while Senator Sullivan will be listed as the Republican candidate.

However, under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, voters can select both Sullivans if they are unsure.

Which party controls the US Senate after November 3 could, ultimately, come down to Alaska’s Senate race, where Senator Sullivan is engaged in a challenging re-election fight against former US Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola.

Polling of the race has consistently shown a race that is well within the margin of error. A survey conducted by Public Policy Polling earlier this month suggested Peltola had a narrow one-point lead.

The campaign teams for both Sullivans and Peltola did not immediately return requests for comment.