Alaska election official disqualifies Dan Sullivan challenger from Senate primary ballot

Alaska's top election official ruled Monday that retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan is disqualified from running as a Republican against Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-Alaska) in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.

Elections chief says bid by ex-teacher to challenge senator with same name was filed ‘to confuse or mislead’ votersThere will still be one Dan Sullivan on the ballot, but election officials in Alaska determined a second man by the same name cannot run against him in the high-stakes Senate race.A man named Dan Sullivan, or Daniel J Sullivan Jr, filed to run as a Republican against incumbent Alaska senator Dan S Sullivan, also a Republican. Republicans filed complaints against the other Dan Sullivan, saying the candidate had coordinated with a Democratic campaign to confuse voters. Continue reading...

An Alaskan election official determined Monday that a candidate with the same name as incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) is ineligible to appear on the ballot.  “On review of the complaints and other information in the Division’s possession, I conclude that your declaration of candidacy was not properly filed with the Division because it was...

An election official ruled a candidate with the same name as Sen. Dan Sullivan was involved in a "determined effort and a deliberate attempt" to confuse Alaska voters.

The disqualified Senate candidate, who’s a Republican, has 30 days to appeal the decision. Ballots are being printed June 28 for the Aug. 18 primary election.

There can only be one Dan Sullivan.A top Alaskan election official ruled Monday that a man sharing the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan is ineligible to participate in the Last Frontier State’s Senate primary in August.In a letter addressed to the challenging Sullivan, Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher wrote that his declaration of candidacy was “not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”Beecher said she had reached that conclusion based on evidence that the 69-year-old retired teacher had “never used” the moniker Dan Sullivan and had similarly “never before professed” a Republican Party affiliation. “Indeed, I conclude that the preponderance of the evidence is that you chose this new nickname and party affiliation because that name and party affiliation happen to be the name and party affiliation of another candidate in the race,” Beecher wrote.She added that he had 30 days to appeal the decision but noted that ballots for the August primary would be printed on June 28, a timeline that will likely shut him out of the race altogether.The new Sullivan filed to run as a Republican in the Senate primary last month, days before the filing deadline. State Republicans have since argued that Sullivan worked with Democrats to cook up the scheme, accusing him of attempting to snatch votes from the two-term senator in a flagrant bid to aid Mary Peltola, a former U.S. representative and the leading Democrat on the ballot.In a social media post Sunday, Sullivan said he believed he “met the qualification” to run.“I entered this race because I am unhappy with the 12 year record of the current Senator and I feel we need a change,” he wrote. “It’s that simple.”