Alaska Court Rejects Mary Peltola Campaign’s Request for Rejected Absentee Ballot Records

An Alaska court has rejected a request to immediately release a list of rejected absentee ballots and the reasons for their rejection. Judge Thomas Matthews ruled on Wednesday that the lawsuit filed by Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign was unreasonable.

In its ruling, the court said Alaska’s Division of Elections was currently busy processing ballots for the 2026 general election. As a result, the agency could not generate the requested reports from its voter registration database.

The judge said the request was unreasonable during the busy election period and that the Division of Elections was not obligated to fulfil it.

Peltola’s campaign filed a lawsuit against state election officials on Friday, demanding the release of records showing rejected absentee ballots and the reasons behind their rejection. The campaign alleged that it had repeatedly requested the documents but had failed to obtain them.

It also argued that the information needed to be released quickly because ballot counting and the process of determining the election outcome were still underway.

A closely contested Senate race is taking place in Alaska between Democratic candidate Mary Peltola and Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan.

According to US media estimates at the end of Wednesday, Peltola was leading by 1.6 percentage points after 86 per cent of the votes had been counted.

If no candidate secures more than 50 per cent of the vote, the winner will be determined through ranked-choice voting. Under this system, voters rank candidates in order of preference.

The outcome in Alaska remains uncertain. In the overall Senate results from the midterm elections, Democrats are projected to hold 55 seats, while Republicans have 44. A victory in Alaska would increase the Democratic tally to 56 seats.

The lawsuit filed by Peltola’s campaign was first reported on November 7. The defendants included the Alaska Division of Elections, Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom and Director of Elections Carol Beecher.

In addition to demanding the release of information about rejected ballots, the campaign had also sought prompt access to inspect the relevant election records.