Mary Peltolas campaign files lawsuit over Alaska Senate race absentee ballots but judge predicts quick decision

A state judge said Tuesday that he expects to issue a swift decision in a lawsuit filed by the campaign of Alaska Democratic US Senate candidate Mary Peltola, which is seeking a list of absentee voters whose ballots have been rejected in one of the most closely watched races of the midterm elections.Peltola’s campaign also said it wants to know the reasons for the rejections and said its intent is to ensure that all qualified voters have their ballots counted.Attorneys for the state say the information requested would violate voter privacy.The campaign sued Friday, three days after the ranked choice election in which Peltola and two-term Republican Sen.

Dan Sullivan are the main contenders.Absentee, early in-person and other ballots are still being tallied.Alaska’s is one of two US Senate races, along with Mississippi’s, that remain too early to call.In arguments before state Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews, Peltola attorney Abha Khanna said the campaign isn’t seeking to disrupt the ongoing ballot counting process and it has seen no cause for concerns.“As far as we can tell, the absentee ballot review process is going incredibly smoothly and we plan to keep it that way,” she said.But Khanna argued the information the campaign seeks is a matter of public record and is in line with what campaign observers have access to in locations where absentee review boards are meeting.

The campaign wants access to that information in a more centralized way, she said.Absentee review boards meet at the state Division of Elections’ regional offices, and campaigns and parties can have observers on hand to watch the process.State law includes provisions for challenging absentee ballots if there is “good reason to suspect” that a challenged voter is ineligible to cast a ballot.In a court filing, attorneys for the state said daily reports generated by the division with lists of absentee ballots to be reviewed are not public records because they contain confiden...