The campaign of Democrat Mary Peltola went to court Friday in an attempt to get information about which absentee ballots the Alaska Division of Elections is rejecting.
Peltola currently leads Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan by about 600 votes in the U.S. Senate race.
The lawsuit is based on state public records law. The Peltola campaign wants a copy of the register showing why each absentee ballot was rejected and who cast it.
The campaign “cannot ensure that its voters' lawful votes were properly counted without knowing whose absentee ballots were rejected or questioned, and why,” the lawsuit said.
The Alaska Department of Law said in an emailed news release that the state isn’t required to release the information.
“Because the information is preliminary, subject to change, and not yet available to affected voters, the Division does not distribute the records separately or allow observers to retain them,” the email said.
The lawsuit is the latest sign that the campaigns are preparing for legal skirmishes to resolve Alaska’s U.S. Senate race. On Election Day, the Sullivan campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee established a recount fund.
Meanwhile, a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification if Sullivan loses seems to be on a slow track. The Trump administration has filed an appeal of a federal judge’s dismissal, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals set a briefing schedule that suggests it won’t be resolved before the new Congress convenes in January.
Unrelated to the lawsuit, the Division of Elections said it will update election results Monday and Tuesday. Alaska’s U.S. Senate race and Mississippi’s are the only two that remain uncalled.
