Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into an alleged effort to recruit candidates for the state's U.S. Senate race, including one with the same name as the incumbent Republican senator. The announcement came after a report detailed what Dunleavy described as "new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska's elections by recruiting candidates intended to confuse voters and misdirect their votes."
In a statement, Dunleavy said the Alaska Division of Elections had investigated similar concerns in June, and that the new reporting substantially supported those findings. He is directing the state's Department of Public Safety to investigate whether the effort violated Alaska law and if criminal or civil action is warranted.
"Alaskans have a fundamental right to vote for the candidate they actually intend to support," Dunleavy stated. "Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections. Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable."
The report cited by Dunleavy, from The New York Times, reportedly relies on 12 sources, text messages, and documents. It alleges that members of Sen. Mary Peltola's campaign, lawyers for Peltola, and senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) contributed to pushing a Republican candidate named Dan J. Sullivan to run in the race. This effort was allegedly internally referred to as the "ballot composition project," aimed at finding a spoiler candidate who could siphon votes from the incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.
A spokesperson for Alaskans for Mary, the campaign committee for Peltola, stated on Wednesday that the committee "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign." The DSCC also issued a statement to ABC News asserting that it "was not involved with Dan J. Sullivan." A DSCC spokesperson added that "Republicans have a long history of recruiting and propping up candidates in an attempt to boost their own campaigns."