THE ALASKA STORY
Nov. 11, 2026 — Alaska’s Superior Court ruled Wednesday in favor of the Division of Elections, rejecting Mary Peltola’s campaign’s effort to compel release of internal absentee ballot reports while election workers continue counting votes.
The decision in Alaskans for Mary v. Dahlstrom et al. grants summary judgment to the state in a dispute over access to records identifying voters whose absentee ballots had been flagged for rejection and the reasons for those decisions.
According to the Department of Law’s announcement, the court found that the absentee ballot detail reports provided to election observers are temporary working documents, and not public records subject to disclosure under Alaska’s Public Records Act. The court also declined to require the division to create a new report for the campaign during the ballot count.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews emphasized the demands already facing election workers.
“The timing of the Campaign’s request could simply not be worse,” Matthews wrote.
The campaign filed its lawsuit Nov. 6, arguing that access to the information would help it ensure qualified voters’ ballots were counted.
During arguments Tuesday, campaign attorney Abha Khanna said the absentee review process was proceeding smoothly and that the campaign wanted more centralized access to information available to observers.
The state argued that the reports contain confidential voter information. Observers may inspect certain reports under signed confidentiality agreements, but cannot retain or copy them.
Judge Matthews concluded that database information could theoretically be produced with appropriate redactions, but that the requested records could not reasonably be produced and stripped of confidential information at this stage of election administration.
In practical terms, the campaign cannot require election officials to divert resources during the count to produce the requested report.
The dispute comes as Peltola and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan await the outcome of Alaska’s Senate election. The Division of Elections has scheduled ranked choice tabulation for Nov. 18 in races that require it, with certification targeted for Nov. 25.
