Judge Denies Democrat’s Last-Ditch Attempt At Rejected Ballot Counting As Vote-Tallying Concludes

An Alaska judge denied a request Thursday from Democratic Alaska Senate nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign for a list of rejected absentee ballots.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled that Alaska’s Division of Election (DOE) lacks the capacity to generate the report from the voter registration, according to the 17-page ruling. Peltola’s campaign sued Alaska on Nov. 7 to obtain access to records for absentee ballots that were rejected by the Alaska Division of Elections.

“Such electronic services are not mandatory, but permissive. And the request must be reasonable,” Matthews wrote. “Even if the request were otherwise considered reasonable outside the peak election time of year, it is simply not reasonable nor required right now. Because of the difficulty in disclosing VREMS records, the DOE is not required to disclose VREMS records.”

Republican Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan’s campaign sued to block Peltola from accessing the voter registration database (VREM) and accused her of “once again attempting to rig the system in her favor.”

Peltola’s campaign and aides with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) conspired to recruit Republican candidates to take votes away from Sullivan, The New York Times reported in October. They recruited a former schoolteacher with the same name as the incumbent to appear on the state’s ranked-choice ballot.

Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher informed Sullivan in an Aug. 26 letter that his declaration of candidacy “was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy,” but rather to confuse voters into voting for the wrong Sullivan. Matthews ruled in June that the other Sullivan could remain on the ballot for the primary.

The Alaska Supreme Court overturned that ruling in a June 30 decision and allowed the other Sullivan to be on the ballot in the general election.

Peltola led Sullivan by a one-point margin, 48.8% to 47.2%, as of Wednesday with 86% of the vote counted.

Democratic strategist Amber Lee authored the other Sullivan’s campaign press release on June 4, campaign metadata reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation showed. Lee publicly supported Peltola’s Senate run and wanted her to run for governor in 2025, according to The Hill.

Peltola was the only Democrat who appeared on the ballot. The other Sullivan changed his party affiliation from Republican to unaffiliated Monday, eight days before the general election, according to the Alaska Beacon, a local outlet.

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Friday to block Alaska’s Senate results if the incumbent senator loses. The DOJ issued dozens of subpoenas on Oct. 30 as part of its investigation into the Peltola campaign’s alleged scheme.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason, an Obama-appointed judge, dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuit in a Nov. 1 ruling.

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