Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan remains confident that he has fended off Democrat challenger Mary Peltola in Alaska's U.S. Senate race despite the alleged "Decoy Dan" scheme.
As of Thursday morning, Sullivan is trailing the volatile Democrat candidate by 637 votes with 75% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press. Dan J. Sullivan, the spoiler candidate whom Peltola's campaign allegedly recruited, has secured 1.7% of the vote.
'We are witnessing the biggest election cheating scandal in the history of the state of Alaska.'
Since neither Sen. Sullivan nor Peltola has met the 50% threshold — Sullivan has 47.9% and Peltola has 48.2% — it appears that the ranked-choice voting process will continue.
Sullivan's campaign expressed optimism about the Republican's chances in RCV, stating in a press email that he is poised to win "despite the biggest election cheating scandal in the history of Alaska. He is also in the position despite a bloodbath for Republicans everywhere else in the country."
Although Sen. Sullivan is presently lagging behind, analysis by the Alaska Beacon shows that the senator would likely gain 2,728 votes under RCV when Republican challenger Gerald Heikes and Daniel J. Sullivan are eliminated. Peltola would pick up only a projected 1,868 from vote redistribution.
Alaska is expected to conduct RCV tabulations on November 18, when correctly postmarked absentee ballots are due.
"We knew it was going to be close, right?" Sullivan told supporters on election night. "We knew we probably wouldn't get final results for days, given, you know, our system."
"I'm confident when all the votes are counted, I will have the honor of representing you in the United States Senate again for six more years," added Sullivan.
RELATED: NY Times exposes Alaska Democrat's alleged hunt for another Dan Sullivan to run against Republican
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A decisive victory on Sullivan's part would likely spare the state a major headache given Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy's suggestion last week that he might not certify the election should Peltola eke out a win after credible allegations about cheating.
A month after it published damning complaints against Peltola from former staffers, the New York Times published detailed claims about her campaign's alleged efforts to recruit individuals with her Republican opponent's namesake, including Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg, who found his way onto the ballot.
Following the Times' Oct. 28 report that relied on testimony from Peltola's former campaign manager, the governor told NewsNation on Thursday that if the state concludes that there "were things that should not have happened ... that are illegal, we will act on that — and that may in fact impact whether somebody is seated in this U.S. Senate."
Sen. Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday, "We are witnessing the biggest election cheating scandal in the history of the state of Alaska, one of the — maybe one of the biggest in the U.S. Senate's history."
Peltola ran on the promise to fix "the rigged system in DC that's shutting down Alaska." Her track record suggests, however, that she is ill equipped to change anything.
The Alaska Democrat — who had the second-highest staff turnover rate in the U.S. House during her final year in office — introduced 23 bills and resolutions during her previous stint in Congress, none of which became law.
During her time as a congresswoman, she was one of the top 10 absentee lawmakers, missing 235 of 1,370 roll-call votes.
The Alaska Division of Elections is not expected to publish an official election result until Nov. 25.
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[H/T Blaze Media]
