State of Alaska investigates whether candidate with the same name, 'suspicion behind No', is an election crime

(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Park Seong-min = The governor of Alaska ordered an investigation into allegations that the opposition Democratic Party was involved in the process of introducing a candidate with the same name as the Republican candidate in the U.S. Alaska U.S. Senate election.

Governor Mike Dunleavy said on the 29th (local time) on

He continued, “Intentionally deceiving voters into voting for someone else undermines the fairness of our elections,” and emphasized, “Individuals or organizations found to have violated the law must be held accountable.”

In response to this, the New York Times evaluated it as ordering a criminal investigation into the Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola's election campaign.

Five days before the midterm elections, the Alaska federal Senate election, a closely contested race between the ruling and opposition parties, appears to be spreading due to the intervention of investigative authorities.

The suspicion arose with NYT's revelations the previous day.

The gist of the report is that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic candidate Mary Peltola's camp were deeply involved in finding Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher with the same name as him, to run to defeat Republican Dan S. Sullivan, an incumbent senator running for re-election.

By having two candidates named 'Dan Sullivan' appear on the ballot, they aimed to disperse Rep. Sullivan's votes.

This is aimed at a loophole in Alaska's unique election system. In this state, candidates run for office regardless of political party, hold a primary election, and the top four advance to the finals. Candidate Dan J. Sullivan passed the primary in third place.

Even before the NYT report, U.S. President Donald Trump had ordered the Justice Department to file a lawsuit to block certification of the election results if Rep. Sullivan loses by a narrow margin, citing confusion caused by a candidate with the same name.

After the NYT report came out, he condemned the allegations as "election fraud of the highest level" and went on the offensive, saying that candidate Peltola "should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted, and so should the fake Dan Sullivan."

Governor Dunleavy also wrote in

However, the NYT predicted, “It appears that it will be difficult to prove that a crime was committed.”

The Democratic Party is countering that similar suspicions have occurred frequently in the past, and the Republican Party has also used similar tactics in the past not only in Alaska but also in several states.