US Attorney General: Trump does not intend to interfere in state elections
Amman2 min read
Share
US Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday that the department's effort to block the certification of Senate election results in Alaska does not represent an attempt to give President Donald Trump control over elections in the states.
The department filed a lawsuit on Friday to prevent Alaska from certifying Senate election results if the incumbent Republican candidate loses by a narrow margin. However, Blanche emphasized that the Department of Justice is not paving the way to overturn election results if they are unfavorable to Trump.
Blanche told CNN, "President Trump is not trying to control state elections in any way, shape, or form... We are not paving the way for the President to do that."
State election officials told Reuters they are preparing for potential federal intervention in the midterm elections scheduled for November 3, which will determine control of Congress, through means including legal challenges regarding voting that could hinder the certification of results.
In addition to the lawsuit in Alaska, the Trump administration has taken other voting-related actions against states, including a lawsuit to prevent California from counting certain mail-in ballots and a largely unsuccessful attempt to force 30 states and Washington, D.C., to provide full voter rolls.
Blanche said the action taken in Alaska is limited to that state, reiterating that voters will be "confused" because two Republican candidates on the ballot have nearly identical names: the incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan and his challenger Dan J. Sullivan Jr. Blanche explained that the latter Sullivan is running only "to confuse voters."
Blanche added to CNN, "Never before have opponents gone this far in trying to invalidate and manipulate elections as they are doing in this case."
Dan J. Sullivan denied, in interviews with US media, that his goal was to cause confusion or divert votes from his opponent Dan S. Sullivan. His campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Blanche said the lawsuit was filed to give officials "the ability to determine whether there is confusion that violates the law."
He declined to comment on whether Trump ordered him to file the lawsuit, although the President himself said he did. Trump spoke briefly about Alaska again today, accusing Democrats of organizing Dan J. Sullivan's campaign.
