In most of the country, the 2026 midterms are pretty much decided, but here in the Great Land, our three major races, the gubernatorial race, the Senate race, and the contest for our at-large representative, those are still awaiting a final call. There are still absentee ballots being counted, and there will likely be at least one round of ranked-choice counting, which won't happen until November 18.
Of these elections, the Senate race may be the strangest, with the whole "Decoy Dan" fiasco. At present, Democrat former Rep. Mary Peltola leads the incumbent, Republican Dan Sullivan (R-AK), by a whisker — a tad over 600 votes. Now, it appears the Peltola camp is starting to get a little nervous. They have now filed a lawsuit demanding to see rejected absentee ballots.
Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign is suing the state of Alaska to obtain access to records for absentee ballots that were rejected by the Alaska Division of Elections, a new court filing shows.
Peltola’s campaign said they previously requested records of the rejected ballots on multiple occasions but were denied access.
“Plaintiff cannot ensure that its voters’ lawful votes were properly counted without knowing whose absentee ballots were rejected or questioned, and why,” the lawsuit reads. “Each hour and each day that Defendants deny Plaintiff the requested records to which it is entitled costs Plaintiff the opportunity to help ensure that qualified voters have their ballots counted.”
Alaska's Division of Elections has responded.
The Division responded in a release on Friday, saying voters who have had their ballots rejected have not yet had access to the information, therefore, the campaign should not be able to have access yet either.
“Alaska’s constitution and laws do not require the Division to provide this information in the manner requested by the campaign. Releasing preliminary information in the manner sought by the lawsuit would create additional burdens during ballot processing and could delay the timely counting of votes,” the release said.
Alaska allows absentee ballots to be counted up to 15 days after the election, which is also very near the time when the second round of ranked choice voting takes place. Much will depend on how many of the roughly 3,600 votes that went to "Decoy" Dan J. Sullivan will have as the second choice the incumbent Dan Sullivan. There's a fourth contender, Republican Gerald Heikes, who currently has a little over 4,800 votes, and much will also depend on how many of his voters may have chosen the incumbent Republican as their next choice.
And, of course, much will depend on how many Alaskans "bullet voted," only choosing their top candidate and not ranking any of the others at all.
At this juncture, this thing could go either way. Ranked choice voting seems to be making Alaska's elections into something of a circus; the entire "Decoy Dan" thing was only made possible by ranked choice voting. It's also addling the governor's race, where none of the candidates have reached the magic 50 percent number yet, with three Republicans, including the current GOP front-runner Bernadette Wilson, along with two other Republicans facing one Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. This one will go for sure into the second round of ranked choice tabulation, and it's anyone's guess how that might come out.
But it does look like the Peltola campaign is starting to have a case of the heebie-jeebies. That may be a good sign.