Alaska Democrat Peltola denies knowing of second Dan Sullivan on ballot

Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate for Alaska's US Senate seat, said on Thursday that she knew nothing about an alleged effort to put a second man named Dan Sullivan on the ballot, as federal prosecutors and the state's Republican governor pressed investigations into the race.

"I just want to clear the air," Peltola told voters. "I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters."

The incumbent is Republican Senator Dan S Sullivan, who is seeking re-election. Dan J Sullivan, a retired teacher who lives in a remote fishing village, has also been running. Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, so a voter can rank both men.

Controversy erupted this week when the New York Times reported that people connected to Peltola's campaign, and senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, worked to recruit Dan J Sullivan as a spoiler candidate. The newspaper said it had seen text messages and interviewed 12 people who took part in or were told of the plan, or were themselves approached. The BBC said it had not independently verified the reporting. Peltola's campaign has denied it, and Dan J Sullivan has denied any links to her campaign.

Governor Mike Dunleavy ordered an official inquiry earlier this week. Michael Heyman, the US attorney for the district of Alaska, said at a Friday press conference: "There is both a civil investigation and a criminal investigation that are ongoing." He did not immediately give details of the specific crimes his office would examine, the BBC reported. CBS News, the BBC's US news partner, reported that the Justice Department has begun issuing subpoenas to Democratic officials allegedly connected to the recruitment effort. No charges had been filed as of Friday evening.

The Associated Press reported that FBI agents visited a donor to Dan J Sullivan in the candidate's hometown as the inquiry widened.

Later on Friday, lawyers for the Trump administration asked a federal judge to issue an order before Monday directing state election officials to "preserve and segregate" all ballots that rank Dan J Sullivan. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote in court documents that the step would allow investigators to establish whether such a ranking "was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary", adding: "These modest precautionary measures will be impossible after Election Day, so there is good cause for expedited consideration."

Attorneys for Alaska asked the court to throw the lawsuit out, describing the request as "inappropriate and not even possible given Alaskan voters' vital right to ballot secrecy" and the case as meritless, the Associated Press reported.

The Trump administration sued last week to block certification of the result if Sullivan loses, arguing that two Sullivans on the ballot could confuse voters, and amended the suit on Wednesday to cite the Times reporting and Dunleavy's inquiry. Analysts consider the Alaska race one of the tightest in the midterm elections, which will decide which party controls Congress.

Scott Kendall, an attorney who worked on Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski's 2010 and 2016 campaigns, told the BBC he was sceptical that the conduct described in the Times report broke the law, noting that Alaska has no specific good-faith requirement for candidates. "I freely admit there could be more facts, but I'm not going to speculate they exist," he said.