NEW YORK, Oct 25 (Reuters) – The Justice Department’s bid to preemptively block the results of Alaska’s Senate race is not an attempt to give US President Donald Trump control of state elections, US Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday.
Blanche’s agency on Friday sued to stop Alaska from certifying the results of its US Senate race if the Republican incumbent candidate loses narrowly. But the Justice Department is not setting the stage for overturning an election result if it’s unfavorable to Trump, Blanche said.
“President Trump is not trying to take over a state election in any way, shape, or form,” Blanche told CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “We’re not laying any groundwork for the president to do that.”
Election officials around the country have told Reuters they are preparing for potential federal interference in the November 3 midterm elections that will decide control of the US Congress, including legal challenges and disputes over voting that could disrupt certification of the results.
In addition to the Alaska lawsuit, the Trump administration has taken other vote-related actions against states, including a lawsuit to stop California from counting certain mail-in ballots and a mostly unsuccessful attempt to force 30 states and the District of Columbia to provide complete voter rolls.
The Alaska action is specific to that state, Blanche said, reiterating the Trump administration’s contention that voters will be “confused” because two Republicans on the ballot have almost identical names: incumbent US Senator Dan S. Sullivan and challenger Dan J. Sullivan Jr. The latter Sullivan is only running “to confuse voters,” Blanche said.
“Never before have opponents gone to such lengths to try to thwart and cheat an election as they’re doing in this case,” Blanche told CNN.
Dan J. Sullivan has denied in interviews with US news outlets that his aim is to cause confusion or divert votes from Dan S. Sullivan. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit was filed to give officials “the ability to determine whether there was confusion that violates the law,” Blanche said.
He declined to comment on whether Trump ordered him to file the lawsuit, although the president himself has said he did so. Trump briefly spoke about Alaska again on Sunday, accusing Democrats of orchestrating Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign.
“They’ve made it very unclear and I think it’s very unfair,” Trump told reporters before boarding a flight to Michigan. “I think it’s illegal because it’s unfair. You want fairness in voting.”
But critics, including Democratic and some Republican election officials, view the move as part of a pattern of federal overreach in election oversight.
“The fact that Todd Blanche and the Justice Department are willing to go along with it, they’re willing to put their name on it, is an indication of how far they will go after this election is over to try to challenge the results,” US Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
(Reporting by Danielle Kaye in New York and Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Sergio Non and Bill Berkrot)
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