Vice President JD Vance backed the Justice Department’s preemptive lawsuit over Alaska’s Senate race on Tuesday. The suit would stop certification of the result if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola. Donald Trump has said he personally ordered the filing.
How JD Vance defended the administration’s ballot-confusion claim
A reporter asked JD Vance why Alaskans should not feel insulted by the administration’s position. The question noted that the lawsuit implies voters cannot read the word “incumbent” next to Dan Sullivan’s name and cast the right vote. Vance said the question “presumes quite a bit.” He then conceded that many Alaskans would read their ballots correctly and conclude “this is all a big fraud.”
From there, he shifted to the pressures on voters’ time. “But people are busy. People have lives. People have jobs. And when you put a person on the ballot explicitly to try to confuse voters, I think that’s the definition of electoral fraud. And I don’t think that we should endorse it,” the vice president said.
Then, Vance closed by steering his criticism towards the press. He said reporters would call it election fraud if the roles were reversed. “So I think you guys should actually do your job and ask some difficult questions of the Democratic Party,” he said.
For those unaware, the lawsuit claims Alaska voters could mix up the incumbent senator with Daniel J. Sullivan, who shares his name and also appears on the ballot. Dan Sullivan carries the incumbent label. Daniel J. Sullivan has no party affiliation listed.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason, an Obama appointee, sped up the schedule for Peltola’s request to dismiss the suit. Alaska’s elections division, which Republicans lead, has also asked a federal court to throw out the case (via Anchorage Daily News).
That same division first tried to keep Daniel J. Sullivan off the ballot. The Alaska Supreme Court later ruled that both candidates named Dan Sullivan would appear on Election Day.
