Alaska judge rules against Peltola request for Senate race ballot data

Alaska judge rules against Peltola request for Senate race ballot data A judge in Alaska denied a request from Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign for information about absentee voters whose ballots have been rejected, as counting continues in the tightly contested race. The Peltola campaign filed a lawsuit against state election officials last week, seeking the names of affected voters and the reasons for their rejection. It said it needed this information to ensure that all lawful votes were properly counted. But Alaska Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled Wednesday that the records “cannot reasonably be produced at this juncture, nor redacted of confidential information.” The division of elections “is actively in the middle of counting ballots. It has active deadlines it must meet. … The timing of the Campaign’s request could simply not be worse,” Matthews wrote in a 17-page ruling Wednesday, that was uploaded by Anchorage Daily News. Alaska’s division of elections welcomed the ruling. The Peltola campaign did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment. Alaska is the only Senate race that has not yet been called. Fewer than two percentage points separate the two main contenders, Peltola and incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), with 86 percent of votes counted.