Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into an alleged scheme to manipulate the state's U.S. Senate elections, citing a recent New York Times report. The report details an effort to recruit a candidate with a name similar to that of the incumbent GOP senator, Dan Sullivan, reportedly to confuse voters.
"Today’s New York Times reporting reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes," Dunleavy stated on X. "The Alaska Division of Elections investigated these very concerns in June of this year. The new reporting substantially supports the Division’s findings."
Dunleavy directed the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether the alleged scheme violated Alaska's laws and if criminal charges or civil actions are warranted. "Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support. Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections," he added. "Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable."
The New York Times report, titled "Inside Democrats’ Secret Effort to Stack Alaska’s Ballot," claims that Mary Peltola's campaign worked with individuals to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, to run for Senate. He is listed on the ballot without party affiliation, alongside incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan.
The lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice on October 22 seeks to delay the certification of election results if Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses and votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan could have affected the outcome, pending an investigation into potential voter confusion. The Peltola campaign has stated to the Times that it had no involvement with either Sullivan campaign and did not recruit any candidates into the race. Peltola's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.