While the campaign for control of Congress of the United States reaches its last weekend, the Government of the president donald trump stepped up its legal intervention in Alaska’s Senate race as the number of Americans voting early approached 50 million, a record for a midterm election.
The Justice Department accelerated its criminal investigation in Alaska on Friday following reports that aides to a Democratic Senate candidate recruited a retired professor from a remote fishing town to run because he has the same name as the Republican incumbent.
The Department of Justice, acting in the framework of a civil lawsuit that, according to trumphe himself promoted, also presented new motions in order to prevent the state of Alaska from certifying the Senate results if the Republican incumbent, Dan S. Sullivanloses a close race on a ballot that includes the independent candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.
The tight race in Alaska is seen as crucial for Democrats if they hope to wrest control of the Senate from Republicans in trump in Tuesday’s elections.
Alaska is one of 35 races in the 100-member Senate that will set the tone for the final two years of Trump’s term. Trump. Also at stake are the 435 seats in the House of Representatives from the United States.
Early voting participation this cycle has broken a record. More than 49 million Americans have already cast their vote, either in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida Electoral Laboratory, which represents an increase compared to the almost 46 million who voted before Election Day in the 2022 legislative elections.
A Democratic victory in one or both chambers could lead to investigations of the Congress about the Trump Administration, which for two years has had largely complacent Republican majorities.
trump He has campaigned intensively in several states over the last month, but he does not plan to travel on Saturday, a day when several American traditions will come together: politics, Halloween and college football across the country. trump He will return to the campaign trail on Sunday in Kansas and Iowa.
The chief prosecutor of the Department of Justice in Alaska, the federal prosecutor Michael Haymansaid in a press conference on Friday that a recent article by the New York Times about the alleged attempt to recruit a candidate with no prospects had caused an “increase” in the resources of the FBI, and added that he had assigned several prosecutors to the case and that investigative proceedings were being carried out “intensely and rapidly.”
He Times reported on Wednesday that collaborators of the Democratic Senate candidate, Mary Peltolathey recruited Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. to run as a candidate. Heyman He called him a “false candidate” but refused to specify what crime might have been committed.
The department had already filed its civil lawsuit, but, according to Heyman“when the article was published New York Times, “That additional information accelerated what we were already doing.”
Peltola has denied knowledge of any attempt to recruit the second Sullivan. The retired professor has denied coordinating with Peltola’s campaign.
The Trump administration has also sued California to try to prevent the counting of votes cast by more than 20,000 registered voters who the administration alleges may not be citizens. Likewise, it has sued some 30 states and the District of Columbia, requesting uncensored electoral rolls, which is part of a trend that has alarmed electoral officials.
On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening to prosecute California election officials who do not follow the administration’s guidelines. trump in relation to the supposed vote of people who are not citizens.
Sean Morales-Doyledirector of the electoral rights and elections program of the Brennan Center for Justicestated that the Government’s actions are similar to the tactics used by those who denied the electoral results in the 2020 presidential elections.
Although the Administration is unlikely to win in court, he noted, these measures could create a political climate that leads to misconduct by officials. officials.
“It’s about creating uncertainty, sowing fear, mistrust and chaos, hoping to create political circumstances in which maybe the lieutenant governor of Alaska will feel pressured to do something he shouldn’t do. Maybe the governor will start to question things, too,” he said. Morales-Doyle.
Even so, a majority bipartisan of American voters trust the electoral process overall: 76% say they are confident their votes will be counted accurately, according to a survey by Reuters/Ipsos held between September 30 and October 5. About 15% were not sure and the rest did not know or did not respond to the question. ask.
The level of trust was practically equally high between Republicans and Democrats.
