Judge dismisses Trump bid to delay Alaska Senate result

• The lawsuit sought to halt certification if Republican senator Dan Sullivan lost and votes for a namesake candidate might have changed the result.
• Judge Sharon Gleason said ballots already cast had been mixed together and could not be linked to individual voters.
• The ruling does not decide Tuesday’s election, and NPR reported that the Justice Department was expected to appeal.

A federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s bid to stop Alaska certifying its Senate election result if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses and votes for another candidate with the same surname might have changed the outcome.¹²

US District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled on Sunday, 1 November, two days before the election. The Justice Department had sought a delay so officials could investigate whether voters who chose Daniel J. Sullivan meant to vote for the senator. The two candidates are among four standing in Tuesday’s ranked-choice election; the other main contender is Democrat Mary Peltola.²

Gleason said the department had not shown how an investigation could establish voter intent while preserving ballot secrecy. Early ballots had already been mixed together and could not be matched to the people who cast them. The department also offered no workable plan to separate and investigate ballots cast on election day, she wrote.¹²

The judge found the government had failed to meet the constitutional requirement to show that a court order could redress its alleged injury. Alaska law already requires federal-election ballots to be preserved for 22 months, she noted, so ordering their preservation would not address that concern. She also cited the risks of changing election procedures so close to polling day and the state’s authority to administer elections.¹

The case was dismissed without prejudice, but Gleason refused to let the department amend its complaint again and directed the court clerk to close the case. The ruling does not determine whether voters were confused or decide the election result. NPR reported that Justice Department lawyers were expected to appeal; it did not confirm that an appeal had been filed.¹³

Footnotes

1. https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Order-granting-dismissal.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. https://apnews.com/article/alaska-senate-dan-sullivan-peltola-investigation-b35acffc8b55ef58679d9b8395760f98 ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. https://www.kosu.org/news/2026-11-01/judge-tosses-trumps-attempt-to-block-alaska-senate-results-if-gop-incumbent-loses ↩