Alaska Governor Orders Investigation into Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate Campaign

Alaska governor Mike Dunleavy (R) said he ordered an investigation into Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign for Senate as an alleged scheme to mislead voters in next week’s election has been exposed. The Washington Post reported early Thursday that Dunleavy ordered the probe, directing the Alaska Department of Public Safety to “investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws.”

Dunleavy wrote on X in part:

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. The Alaska Division of Elections investigated these very concerns in June of this year. The new reporting substantially supports the Division’s findings. I am therefore directing the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted.

The revelation comes after a report from the New York Times (NYT) on the lengths Democrats went to in order to find someone with the same name as Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, and “interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit” allegedly showing that Peltola’s team was involved “with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run.”

The effort to find a candidate named Dan Sullivan was reportedly “internally called the ballot composition project” which “involved the Peltola’s campaign’s lawyers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee,” Breitbart News said on Wednesday, citing the NYT story.

Much of the NYT‘s information came from Elisa Rios, who previously worked as Peltola’s campaign manager.

Rios told the outlet during multiple interviews that Alaskans needed to know the full story of how the ballot ended up with an independent candidate named Dan Sullivan. She also clarified that Peltola “was not directly involved in the project,” but she was “definitely aware” of its existence.

Alaska uses a controversial ranked-choice voting process in which voters are asked to rank their choices in each contest on the state’s ballot. Even small shifts in preference can play a role in the eventual winner of the race. Voters in the state are presented with four names and asked to rank them. Next week’s ballot with have Sen. Sullivan, Peltola, the liberal Sullivan, and Gerald Heikes.

The liberal activist Sullivan told the New York Times in August he voted for the Democrat candidate in the last three presidential elections, backed Peltola in her 2022 and 2024 U.S. House bids, and has donated to her and other Democrats, as Breitbart News has noted.

“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,” Gov. Dunleavy added in his X post early Thursday. 

Follow Matt Mercer on X: @mattmercer.