Last night, the Justice Department bigfooted into the Alaska Senate race and demanded that a federal judge block certification of the election — but only if Democrat Mary Peltola wins.
If you guessed that this embarrassing abuse of judicial process was signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward … congratulations! No points will be awarded, however, because DUH.
This controversy has been kicking around since May, when a candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan registered to run in the primary. No one seriously contends that this was anything other than an effort to siphon off votes from incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan, and in June the state’s election director Carol Beecher ordered the new guy removed from the ballot. Beecher works in the office of Republican Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom, and Anchorage’s KTUU reports that Governor Mike Dunleavey personally participated in discussions about Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy.
The Alaska Superior Court reversed Beecher’s ruling, and the Supreme Court of the State of Alaska agreed. After which Daniel J. Sullivan did indeed appear on the primary ballot on August 18, and, thanks to the state’s ranked choice voting system, advanced to the general by placing fourth, with 2.5 percent of the vote.
That was eight weeks ago, but the president apparently just discovered it, at which point he instructed his minions at the DOJ to unleash the “powerful legal options” STAT.
And when the Justice Department needs someone to sign their name to “powerful legal options” of dubious legality, Stanley Woodward is there! Along with AUSA E. Bryan Wilson, Woodward signed this batshit complaint, first flagged by Courthouse News, demanding that a federal court block the state from certifying the election if Rep. Peltola wins by a narrow margin.
On its face, there appear to be one or two tiny problems with this lawsuit.
Like standing, which the DOJ handles by gesturing vaguely in the direction of the purposive clause of the National Voter Registration Act and claiming that the government “suffers an injury when the certification of the election for a federal office is tainted by a frivolous candidacy because that undermines confidence in the make-up and workings of the federal government.”
Or adversity, since the complaint names Beecher as defendant, as well as a bunch of state agencies controlled by sitting Republican officials who are presumably not opposed to a remedy they fought to implement in June.
Or timeliness, after the government sat on its hands since June and only sauntered into the courtroom eleven days before the election, with early voting already underway.
The complaint also takes a rather dim view of Alaska’s voters, who managed to elect Senator Lisa Murkowski as a write-in candidate in 2010. According to Woodward, Alaska Republicans will be so flummoxed by the appearance of two Dans Sullivan on the ballot that they “likely will be confused as to how to rank the three Republican candidates as to defeat Peltola.” This would require voters to ignore the “(Registered Republican) Incumbent” next to Dan S. Sullivan’s name, fill in the 1st choice bubble for the other guy, and then … run away crying rather than rank another Republican as 2nd choice?
And so, the DOJ insists, the court must “Declare that certification of any result that may be impacted by voter confusion, as defined above, would violate Defendants’ duties under the NVRA to ‘protect the integrity of the electoral process’” and block certification of the election if Peltola’s margin of victory doesn’t exceed the number of votes cast for Dan J. Sullivan.
The case has been assigned to Chief Judge Sharon Gleason, an Obama appointee. Guess we’ll find out soon if she understands ranked choice voting.
US v. Alaska [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye produces the Law and Chaos Substack and podcast. You can subscribe by clicking the logo:
The post DOJ Demands Court Cancel Alaska Senate Race Because GOP Voters Too Stupid To Understand Ranked Choice Voting appeared first on Above the Law.
Last night, the Justice Department bigfooted into the Alaska Senate race and demanded that a federal judge block certification of the election — but only if Democrat Mary Peltola wins.
If you guessed that this embarrassing abuse of judicial process was signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward … congratulations! No points will be awarded, however, because DUH.
This controversy has been kicking around since May, when a candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan registered to run in the primary. No one seriously contends that this was anything other than an effort to siphon off votes from incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan, and in June the state’s election director Carol Beecher ordered the new guy removed from the ballot. Beecher works in the office of Republican Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom, and Anchorage’s KTUU that Governor Mike Dunleavey personally participated in discussions about Daniel J. Sullivan’s candidacy.
The Alaska Superior Court reversed Beecher’s ruling, and the Supreme Court of the State of Alaska agreed. After which Daniel J. Sullivan did indeed appear on the primary ballot on August 18, and, thanks to the state’s ranked choice voting system, advanced to the general by placing fourth, with 2.5 percent of the vote.
That was eight weeks ago, but the president apparently just discovered it, at which point he instructed his minions at the DOJ to STAT.
And when the Justice Department needs someone to sign their name to “powerful legal options” of dubious legality, Stanley Woodward is there! Along with AUSA E. Bryan Wilson, Woodward signed this batshit complaint, first flagged by Courthouse News, demanding that a federal court block the state from certifying the election if Rep. Peltola wins by a narrow margin.
On its face, there appear to be one or two tiny problems with this lawsuit.
Like standing, which the DOJ handles by gesturing vaguely in the direction of the purposive clause of the National Voter Registration Act and claiming that the government “suffers an injury when the certification of the election for a federal office is tainted by a frivolous candidacy because that undermines confidence in the make-up and workings of the federal government.”
Or adversity, since the complaint names Beecher as defendant, as well as a bunch of state agencies controlled by sitting Republican officials who are presumably not opposed to a remedy they fought to implement in June.
Or timeliness, after the government sat on its hands since June and only sauntered into the courtroom eleven days before the election, with early voting already underway.
The complaint also takes a rather dim view of Alaska’s voters, who managed to elect Senator Lisa Murkowski as a write-in candidate in 2010. According to Woodward, Alaska Republicans will be so flummoxed by the appearance of two Dans Sullivan on the ballot that they “likely will be confused as to how to rank the three Republican candidates as to defeat Peltola.” This would require voters to ignore the “(Registered Republican) Incumbent” next to Dan S. Sullivan’s name, fill in the 1st choice bubble for the other guy, and then … run away crying rather than rank another Republican as 2nd choice?
And so, the DOJ insists, the court must “Declare that certification of any result that may be impacted by voter confusion, as defined above, would violate Defendants’ duties under the NVRA to ‘protect the integrity of the electoral process’” and block certification of the election if Peltola’s margin of victory doesn’t exceed the number of votes cast for Dan J. Sullivan.
The case has been assigned to Chief Judge Sharon Gleason, an Obama appointee. Guess we’ll find out soon if she understands ranked choice voting.
US v. Alaska [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye produces the Law and Chaos Substack and podcast. You can subscribe by clicking the logo:
