Anchorage, Alaska: Peltola Campaign Sues State for Records on Rejected Absentee Ballots

The campaign of Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola sued Alaska election officials in Anchorage Superior Court on Friday, asking a judge to order the release of the state's running record of which absentee ballots are being accepted or rejected, and why, while the count in her race against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan continues.

Peltola led Sullivan by 637 first-choice votes in the count the Division of Elections posted on Wednesday afternoon, according to Alaska News, and the Associated Press estimated that roughly 75,000 ballots remained to be counted. The race has not been called.

What the lawsuit asks for

The plaintiff is Alaskans for Mary, the campaign committee for Peltola. The case, Alaskans for Mary v. Dahlstrom, names Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, Elections Director Carol Beecher and the Division of Elections. Dahlstrom's office oversees elections in Alaska.

The campaign asks for a copy of the absentee register showing the accept or reject code for each absentee ballot, or any other records that show the identities of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected and the reasons for each rejection. An emergency motion asks a judge for an immediate order requiring the state to turn over the records or let the campaign inspect and copy them.

The campaign argues the records are public under the Alaska Public Records Act. Its complaint says it cannot ensure that its voters' lawful votes were properly counted without knowing whose absentee ballots were rejected or questioned, and why. The lawsuit does not claim that any specific ballot was wrongly rejected, and it does not ask the court to stop the count or change any vote totals.

According to the complaint, the campaign first asked each of the division's regional offices on October 27 for the absentee register. It followed up after Election Day, and the state's attorneys declined on November 5 to turn over the records immediately.

The state response

The Alaska Department of Law answered on Friday. The department said the campaign is seeking preliminary absentee ballot information that the Division of Elections has long treated as confidential and that Alaska law does not require the division to release. The information is preliminary, subject to change, and not yet available to the affected voters themselves, the department said.

During the absentee review process, authorized observers may view certain daily records under confidentiality agreements, but the division does not distribute the records separately or allow observers to retain them. Releasing the information in the way the lawsuit asks would add burdens during ballot processing and could delay the timely counting of votes, the department said. It closed with a plain line: the division has protected this information for years and will ask the court to protect it too.

Under state law, the division has until 60 days after the election is certified to mail voters whose absentee ballots were rejected a notice explaining why the ballot did not count. State law lists the reasons a ballot can be rejected, including problems with the voter's certificate or its witness signature, a postmark after Election Day and missing identification from some first-time voters.

What happens next

No hearing date or ruling on the emergency request had been reported as of Saturday. The Division of Elections is scheduled to release its next count on Tuesday, November 10. Alaska will accept absentee ballots until November 18, the day the ranked choice tabulation is also expected, because no candidate has cleared 50 percent of the first-choice vote.

The filings are signed by lawyers from the Anchorage firm Reeves Amodio and from the Elias Law Group.