Late last week, the Department of Justice sued Alaska to pre-emptively block the state from certifying the election in the U.S. Senate race there if Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses to Democrat Mary Peltola. That is due, the DOJ alleges, to confusion voters might experience with another candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot. Donald Trump admitted he was the one who ordered the DOJ to file the suit. This week, the DOJ doubled down on the lawsuit after The New York Times reported that operatives connected to the Peltola campaign were behind recruiting Dan J. Sullivan to run for the seat as a potential spoiler, a practice known as “ballot stacking” that is considered legal and is done by the Republican Party, too. ABC News reports that new DOJ subpoenas are “targeting Democratic officials believed to be tied to the effort.” Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has directed the state’s Department of Public Safety to investigate whether any Alaska law was violated. The Alaska Supreme Court had previously given the green light to Dan J. Sullivan appearing on the ballot. Trump on Wednesday accused Mary Peltola of “ELECTION FRAUD!” and called for her to be removed from the ballot.
Earlier this month, Trump’s DOJ filed a lawsuit against California demanding election officials set aside roughly 20,000 ballots from voters they suspect are not U.S. citizens. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Carter rejected the Trump administration’s effort to segregate those ballots. In a 26-page ruling, Judge Carter wrote, “Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch. In bringing this lawsuit, the Executive would have this Court believe that it reigns as a sole sovereign. But California and its people are sovereign, too.” Carter went on, writing, “over 20,000 registered Californians would potentially lose the right that generations of Americans have fought to preserve.” According to CBS News, “The Justice Department plans to appeal Carter’s decision and will seek an emergency order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.”
Voters Around The World Go to the Polls in Highly-Watched Elections
In Israel’s elections on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was dealt a
