An Alaska judge on Wednesday handed Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola a legal setback. He rejected her campaign’s bid to force state election officials to hand over records on absentee ballots flagged for rejection while votes are still being counted.
Alaska Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews sided with the Alaska Division of Elections. He found that the agency was busy processing ballots from the 2026 general election and did not have the capacity to produce the report the campaign wanted from the state’s voter registration database.
Matthews called the request “simply not reasonable” in the middle of the count. He added that the timing “could simply not be worse.”
Peltola’s campaign filed the lawsuit last week. It sought records showing which absentee ballots had been flagged for rejection and why.
At a hearing Tuesday, Matthews said the case was not about who won the race but about access to public records under the state’s Public Records Act. He allowed the campaign of incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan to join the case.
Peltola campaign attorney Abha Kelly told the court the count was “going incredibly smoothly.” She said the campaign was not seeking confidential information or trying to disrupt the process. She argued the request would simply gather in one place information that election observers already had in scattered form.
The state pushed back. Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton-Walsh argued the records are not public because voters have privacy interests at stake. She also said building a custom report would be a heavy burden on election workers during their busiest stretch.
The ruling comes as Peltola holds a narrow lead in what is now the last uncalled race of the midterm elections.
About 86% of the expected vote has been counted, with more than 248,000 ballots tallied. Peltola has 121,487 first-choice votes, or 48.9%. Sullivan has 117,512, or 47.3%. That puts her ahead by 3,975 votes.
But the race is far from settled. Neither candidate has cleared 50%, so it will go to ranked-choice tabulation. Under that process, second-choice votes from eliminated candidates are redistributed.
That could decide the race. Two lower-finishing candidates, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. and Gerald Heikes, have 4,100 and 5,426 votes. Each total is larger than Peltola’s current margin.
The second “Dan Sullivan” on the ballot has fueled controversy. Reports have alleged that Peltola’s campaign or Democratic operatives backed a secret effort to put spoiler candidates on the ranked-choice ballot, a scheme dubbed “decoy Dan.” Peltola has said she “knew nothing” about it, while Sullivan has said she is “still lying.” The Justice Department has reportedly announced criminal and civil investigations.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has called the state’s voting system “very confusing” while the race remains unresolved.
Meanwhile, a ballot measure to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system is trailing 52.5% to 47.5%. That contest is also too close to call.
Absentee ballot counting is expected to wrap up around Nov. 18, with certification expected Nov. 25.
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