THE ALASKA STORY
Nov. 6. 2026 – Mary Peltola’s US Senate campaign sued Alaska election officials Friday, asking a judge to order the release of records showing which absentee ballots were flagged for rejection and why.
The Division of Elections says the records are preliminary and could give the campaign information about individual ballots before the affected voters can see it themselves.
Alaskans for Mary filed the lawsuit Nov. 6 in Anchorage Superior Court against Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, Elections Director Carol Beecher and the Division of Elections.
The campaign also asked for a temporary restraining order to compel prompt disclosure as Alaska continues counting votes in the race between Peltola, a Democrat, and Republican US Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.
According to the complaint, the campaign asked each regional elections office on Oct. 27 for a copy of the absentee register showing acceptance or rejection codes for returned ballots, or other records identifying voters whose ballots had been rejected and the reasons for those rejections. The campaign says it followed up after Election Day and that attorneys for the state declined on Thursday to turn over the records immediately.
The campaign argues that the records are subject to the Alaska Public Records Act and that access while the count is underway would help it determine whether eligible voters’ ballots were properly counted. Its attorneys argue that Alaska’s rules allowing designated observers to attend absentee ballot reviews weigh in favor of disclosure.
The Division draws a distinction between letting authorized observers inspect records during a review and giving campaigns copies to keep. In a statement, the agency said observers can view certain daily records under confidentiality agreements. Those records link preliminary decisions to voters’ names and addresses, the Division said, and the decisions can change before they are final.
The Division says it treated the information as confidential for years and that neither the Alaska Constitution nor state law requires release in the form the campaign seeks. It said producing the records during ballot processing would add work for election staff and could delay the count.
Alaska law requires election officials to notify absentee voters whose ballots are rejected and to provide a way for voters to check whether their ballots were counted and, if they were rejected, why. The lawsuit asks whether the campaign is entitled to obtain the underlying records while that review is still underway.
