Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy has had enough. He’s directing the Alaska Department of Public Safety to investigate what sure looks like an organized scheme to recruit candidates with the same name as sitting U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, all apparently designed to confuse voters and siphon off their votes.
Dunleavy didn’t mince words. 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,” he said in his official statement. He added that the Alaska Division of Elections had already looked into these concerns back in June, and the new reporting “substantially supports” what they found. Now he wants to know if criminal charges or civil action are warranted, and he’s not leaving it up to chance. “Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable,” he said.
It’s worth pointing out that the New York Times, not exactly a conservative publication, managed to dig up evidence that a prior investigation this summer somehow missed entirely. You’d think investigators in Alaska would be motivated to find election fraud. Apparently the Times had better luck. Alaska ballot fraud scheme has now attracted the attention of President Trump as well, who called out the manipulation during remarks, and Attorney General Todd Blanche previously filed a federal lawsuit on October 22 seeking to delay certification if Senator Dan Sullivan loses and votes cast for a Daniel J. Sullivan could have changed the result.
Sullivan himself isn’t exactly surprised. Speaking on Sean Hannity’s show Wednesday night, the senator said, “This is what happens when you have a candidate like Peltola, far left, who’s got nothing to run on. I have a much stronger record we’re running. We have a vision for Alaskans that the Alaskan people want, and when they recognize that, they’re like, ‘shoot, I guess we got to cheat.'” Hard to argue with that logic.
So where does this go from here? The Department of Public Safety will investigate, the evidence gets evaluated, and whoever cooked up this scheme might be looking at criminal charges or a civil action. Governor Dunleavy was clear that the evidence will determine what happens next. In the meantime, Democrats running a candidate with the same name as your opponent to trick elderly voters into punching the wrong box is apparently what passes for a campaign strategy on the left these days. Bold vision, guys.
