SMH 🤦‍♂️

ALASKA — “Did it impact who you’re gonna vote for?” “Not a bit.” “Can you tell who is who?” “Oh, absolutely.” https://t.co/d9xXIevOmC

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) October 30, 2026

CNN: Did it impact your vote at all? Alaska Voter: Not a bit. CNN: Can you tell who's who here? AV: Absolutely. You've got Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. and then you have Sullivan Dan, who's a registered Republican and incumbent. And I don't even have my glasses on. It's pretty clear it's in black and white. It's very clear.

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 30, 2026

CNN: Did it impact your vote at all?

Alaska Voter: Not a bit.

CNN: Can you tell who's who here?

AV: Absolutely. You've got Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. and then you have Sullivan Dan, who's a registered Republican and incumbent. And I don't even have my glasses on. It's pretty clear it's in black and white. It's very clear.

Okay, now did this have an impact?

DOLL: Well, the legal reality is Alaska's supreme court already looked at this ballot issue because it was raised within Alaska. And as a result, they made the ballot clear that Dan Sullivan was the incumbent and the Republican. So the DOJ doesn't have jurisdiction around this. https://t.co/5bkUP5XiGL

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 30, 2026

The federal judge has given the DOJ until noon Friday .(Alaska time) to respond to Alaska’s motion to dismiss, and Alaska until noon tomorrow to respond to the DOJ’s filing. Alaska is asking for the case to be dismissed before Election Day. That may happen.

In the meantime, DOJ is pursuing a criminal investigation.

Separately, the Justice Department — as part of a lawsuit it filed last week — asked a judge to order that state elections officials isolate ballots ranking Dan J. Sullivan to investigate potential voter "confusion" with the senator. The owner of a boat dealership in the candidate's hometown of Petersburg who had donated to his campaign told The Associated Press that an FBI agent visited the business and wanted to know whether he had been misled by Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy. He said he had not and that "Everybody knows who the incumbent is."

Evidence of “confused” voters will be a factor in criminal, or civil, cases. And about that civil suit:

Justice Department attorneys in the Alaska case said there is a "substantial risk" that Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy "will mislead voters and ultimately result in an electoral process that lacks integrity."

"To guard against this danger, the United States seeks an order directing Defendants to preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary," the filing states. It requests a decision by Monday.

Attorneys for the state in response questioned how segregation would be possible, writing that voters' ballots are commingled in the ballot box on Election Day and that election workers couldn't segregate ballots ranking Dan J. Sullivan without violating ballot secrecy protections. Ballots segregated or not wouldn't reveal any voter's reason for voting for Dan J. Sullivan, they said.

They have asked a judge to dismiss the case and said Alaska elections officials already took steps to distinguish the two Sullivans on the ballot. The senator is listed as Dan S. Sullivan, Republican and incumbent, while the challenger is listed as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., with no party affiliation. That's also how they appeared on the August open primary ballot.

Attorneys for the state also have argued that Alaska's ranked voting system further addresses concerns about potential confusion by allowing voters to rank both Sullivans.

Especially because of the ranked voting system, I don’t think DOJ ever gets what it’s asking for.