Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to detail the circumstances leading up to the Department of Justice filing a lawsuit challenging the results of Alaska’s Senate race because two candidates share the same name.
Blanche appeared on two different programs Sunday morning and was asked about President Donald Trump saying he directed the DOJ to pursue a legal challenge if the Senate race is affected by “voter confusion” related to incumbent Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-AK) and former Forest Service employee Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. both being on the ranked choice ballot.
The attorney general appeared on CNN’s Face the Nation on Sunday and reaffirmed that he does not disclose his private conversations with the president. He also disputed the idea that Trump’s concerns about Alaska’s ranked choice voting system are new.
“I will never talk about any communications I have with the president of the United States,” Blanche said. “But what I will say is that the president is not shy to the American people and has been very clear with the American people about his concerns about what’s happening in Alaska.”
Trump told reporters on Friday in Florida, “I’m the one that said ‘do it,'” referring to the DOJ filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska that asked the court to block the November general results if they are at all “tainted by the inclusion on the ballot of Daniel J. Sullivan.”
“I have no idea who he was referring to, and even if I did have an idea, I would most certainly not talk about it,” Blanche told CBS News’s Face the Nation.
During the interview, Blanche also disputed the idea that the lawsuit seeks to stop Alaska election officials from certifying the election results. Instead, he claimed the lawsuit intends to preserve all election materials should evidence of voter confusion between the two candidates arise.
“All we are doing is trying to put guardrails in place so that if this happens, there’s a system allowed where the ballots are kept in a way so that we can determine whether there was confusion,” Blanche said. “It’s not saying don’t certify. It’s saying if a court ultimately determines that it was decided because of confusion and not the will of the voters, then we do not think the states should certify, and that’s consistent with federal law and consistent with even Alaskan law if that happens.”
However, the DOJ’s filing urges state election officials not to certify the results of the election if there is suspicion voters were confused by the two candidates named Dan Sullivan.
TRUMP SAYS HE PERSONALLY ORDERED DOJ LAWSUIT INTERVENING IN ALASKA SENATE ELECTION
“Given the substantial likelihood that the inclusion of Daniel J. Sullivan will confuse or mislead voters looking to cast a vote for Senator Sullivan, and thus distort the will of Alaskan voters, there is a substantial likelihood that a certification of the election will reflect an electoral process that lacked integrity,” the DOJ’s filing said. “To guard against this danger, it is vital that Defendants not certify any election result that may be impacted by voter confusion.”
According to the Alaska Board of Elections sample ballot, the two Dan Sullivans are differentiated by their middle initial, and the sitting senator is labeled as a registered Republican and incumbent.
Continue reading...
[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
