The Justice Department has gone to federal court in Alaska to block certification of the 2026 U.S. Senate race if results include a second candidate named Daniel Sullivan, a move aimed at stopping voter confusion on the state’s ranked-choice ballot.

Federal lawyers filed the case on October 22, asking a court to stop Alaska from locking in any Senate outcome they say would be tainted by that inclusion. The suit names the state, Elections Division Director Carol Beecher, the state’s election boards, and the Ballot Counting Review Board as defendants.

Breitbart News reported that the Department of Justice wants a preemptive bar on certification should officials certify “electoral results tainted by the inclusion” of Daniel J. Sullivan alongside incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

The filing puts the integrity of Alaska’s next Senate contest front and center. Four names appear in the race: two-term Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is seeking a third term; former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola; Daniel J. Sullivan; and Gerald Heikes.

Alaska already removed Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot once. The Division of Elections kicked him off. The Alaska Supreme Court put him back on.

That sequence left the federal government arguing that identical names and campaign signage create a real risk of mix-ups under the state’s ranked-choice system, in which voters rank candidates in order rather than picking one.

Trump ordered action over voter confusion

President Donald Trump has said he directed the Justice Department to pursue a legal challenge if the Senate race is affected by “voter confusion” from two candidates named Daniel Sullivan on the ranked-choice ballot.

The Washington Examiner reported that Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to spell out the lawsuit’s circumstances when asked on Sunday programs, even as the White House and DOJ pressed the case.

That posture matches other second-term moves to police election rules and enforce the law without apology, including efforts such as passport data access for voter citizenship checks.

In the Alaska filing, the United States stated its purpose in plain terms.

"The United States accordingly brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska,"

The complaint also warns against certifying results “tainted by the inclusion” of the second Sullivan and attaches a lengthy set of exhibits on matching names and signage.

Who Daniel J. Sullivan is, and how he got back on the ballot

Daniel J. Sullivan is not a blank slate. Reporting summarized in the case coverage says he told the New York Times he voted for the Democratic nominee in the last three presidential elections and did not vote for Sen. Dan Sullivan in the senator’s previous two campaigns.

He backed Peltola in her 2022 and 2024 U.S. House races and has donated to her and other Democrats, according to that same account of prior reporting.

State election officials tried to keep him off the ballot. The Alaska Supreme Court reinstated him. The Justice Department’s response is to ask a federal judge to stop certification if his name stays in the certified tally.

Ranked-choice voting makes the name collision more than a curiosity. Voters rank choices. A familiar name on the wrong line can pull rankings away from the incumbent voters actually meant to support. Trump has already urged Alaska voters to scrap ranked-choice voting as a system that muddies clear majorities.

What the lawsuit asks the court to do

The complaint is not waiting for a disputed count after Election Day. It seeks a preemptive block on certification if Daniel J. Sullivan is part of the certified result.

Defendants include the state apparatus that would do the certifying: Beecher as Elections Division director, the election boards, and the Ballot Counting Review Board. The case sits in federal court in Alaska.

CNBC also covered the naming of those defendants as the suit moved into public view.

Administration lawyers are treating ballot clarity as an integrity issue, much as the Justice Department has pursued other accountability cases, including when the Justice Department sought a Cassidy Hutchinson indictment over alleged false statements.

The exhibits, as described in coverage of the filing, catalog efforts tied to identical names and signage. The public record so far does not list every exhibit line by line, but the government’s theory is straightforward: two Daniel Sullivans on one ranked-choice Senate ballot invite confusion the state should not lock into official results.

Alaska’s ballot fight sits inside a larger integrity push

Sen. Dan Sullivan is a two-term Republican running again. Peltola is the high-profile Democrat in the field. Gerald Heikes is the fourth candidate. The second Sullivan’s presence is what triggered the federal complaint.

State officials removed him. The state’s high court restored him. Washington then sued.

That sequence shows why federal intervention landed when it did. Local process did not end the name problem. The Justice Department stepped in before certification could freeze a contested lineup into the official record.

Trump’s Alaska legal focus is not limited to ballots. He has also taken direct action on other Alaska cases, including when Trump signed onstage pardons for Alaska diesel shop owners charged under Biden-era Clean Air Act prosecutions.

Election administration still belongs first to the states. Certification is a state act. The United States is asking a federal court to police the conditions under which that act can lawfully occur when the ballot itself, in the government’s view, confuses voters about who is who.

Blanche’s refusal to narrate every internal step does not change the public filing. The complaint is on the docket. The relief sought is specific. The named defendants are the officials and boards that count and certify.

Open questions remain about the full prayer for relief, the complete exhibit list, and any formal responses from Beecher and the boards. The core facts already in the record are enough to show the stakes: a 2026 Senate race, two men with the same name, ranked-choice rankings, and a Justice Department unwilling to let certification paper over the mess.

Voters deserve a ballot they can read without guessing which Sullivan is which. Protecting that clarity is basic election integrity, not a side show.