‘Razor-thin’ Alaska race sparks vote-count lawsuit; Trump claims Sullivan ‘won’

[Financial News] With the U.S. Senate race in Alaska extremely close, a Democratic candidate for whom every vote counts has filed a lawsuit against election authorities.
According to foreign media reports on the 7th (local time), Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate for Alaska’s U.S. Senate seat, sued the state Division of Elections, demanding the immediate release of records related to invalidated absentee ballots.
Peltola’s campaign said it had requested the records several times since the 27th of last month under the state’s public records law but had received no response. It argued that the state should disclose records identifying absentee ballots and the reasons they were invalidated.
The state Department of Law countered that the records were confidential and could not be compelled to be disclosed under state law.
It added, “If we release preliminary information as the lawsuit demands, it could place an additional burden on ballot processing and delay the count,” and said it would instead ask the court to protect the information.
With the margin between Peltola and incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan currently just 600 votes, even the relatively small number of invalid absentee ballots appears to be drawing a sensitive response.
According to the Associated Press, with 74% of the vote counted, Peltola has 48.2% of the vote, barely ahead of Senator Sullivan at 47.9%.
Another Republican candidate, Gerald Heikes, has 2.3%. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., an independent whose shared name with Senator Sullivan sparked controversy over the possibility of confusion during voting, has 1.7%.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump unilaterally claimed that Senator Sullivan had won that day.
He argued that votes for Heikes, a fellow Republican, and Sullivan Jr., who shares the senator’s name, should also be added to Senator Sullivan’s total.
Trump said, “Votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., who has no political experience and did not even vote, were effectively votes for Senator Dan Sullivan.” He explained, “If Daniel’s and Heikes’s votes are added to Dan’s, he would lead by thousands of votes.”
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