ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska's election officials might have fought to keep a namesake challenger to U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan off the ballot over the summer, but now the state has moved to stop a Trump administration effort to block the results of the Senate race over the same controversy.

On Monday, the state of Alaska filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department last week that seeks to stop Alaska officials from certifying the results of the race if the Republican incumbent loses his reelection bid. The suit also called for an investigation into whether votes cast for Dan J. Sullivan, a retired educator from Petersburg who also sought to run as a Republican, were intended for the incumbent instead.

President Donald Trump has said that he directed the Justice Department to file the lawsuit.

Monday's motion by the Department of Law's Civil Division Director Rachel Witty was filed on behalf of Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher, who is a Republican, as well as the state election and ballot-counting review boards. The state's elections division is overseen by Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who was endorsed by Trump in her unsuccessful 2024 run for Alaska's lone U.S. House seat.

The state's 20-page filing argued that the Trump administration has no standing to sue the state over the inclusion of the Petersburg Sullivan on the ballot — or violate the long-standing legal precedent protecting ballot secrecy in order to investigate which Sullivan voters intended to support, in the event the incumbent loses.

In the motion, the state said that Alaska's ranked choice voting system — which Trump has criticized as "very fraudulent" — provides a relief to any voter confusion because anyone who is unsure which Sullivan they would like to support could choose to rank both. It identifies the unusual steps the Division of Elections took to distinguish between the candidates: The ballot lists the challenger as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. with no party affiliation, while referring to the senator as Dan S. Sullivan, the Republican incumbent.

The filing also argued that if the court sided with the Trump administration, it "would cause the harm the United States says it wants to avoid by undermining confidence in the election."

"The United States has no legal authority over how candidates secure their place on the ballot in state elections; only the federal constitution's qualifications clause constrains a state's rules," the motion said. "And the United States also has no legally cognizable interest in securing a particular election outcome."

Additionally, the state's motion argues that the federal government's complaint should be dismissed because it "fails to state a claim for violation of the National Voter Registration Act," the only federal law the Justice Department's complaint cited. The United States' reading of the act would transform it "from a voter registration law into a limitless grant of authority for federal interference in state-run elections," the state argued.

The state's motion followed a Friday filing from Democratic challenger and former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to intervene in the case. They also requested that U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason dismiss the suit.

Peltola has described the lawsuit as a corrupt effort to interfere in the state's election, while Sen. Sullivan's campaign said they had "no prior knowledge of this lawsuit and no role in it." U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the suit in remarks over the weekend, arguing that the legal challenge was a necessary step to avoid confusing voters.

Polls show Peltola locked in a tight race with the incumbent Sullivan, who has aligned himself with Trump as he seeks a third Senate term. It is one of a few races across the country that could determine control of the chamber after the midterm elections.

The Petersburg Sullivan's entry into the race has drawn criticism from national Republicans since he filed to run for the seat at the end of May. Beecher initially deemed him ineligible to run after complaints from the Alaska Republican Party and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Dan J. Sullivan was allowed to appear on the primary ballot, however, after the Alaska Supreme Court earlier this year upheld a ruling by an Anchorage Superior Court judge determining that he was eligible to run for office.

The Petersburg Sullivan has rejected allegations from the incumbent and Republican groups that he is running in an effort to deceive voters and draw votes from the sitting senator. He has maintained that he is running because he believes Sen. Sullivan is doing a poor job of representing Alaskans.

The Petersburg Sullivan received less than 2.5% of the vote in the August primary. His performance, which was enough to land him a spot as a top four vote-getter and advance to the general election, has drawn Trump's attention on multiple occasions.

"That's a lot," Trump said earlier this month at a Wasilla rally to boost the incumbent Sullivan, referencing the more than 4,000 people who voted for Dan J. Sullivan in the primary. "That's too much. That could be the difference."

The state's motion filed Monday noted that the Justice Department's complaint was filed two months after the primary, and after early and absentee voting had already begun in the lead-up to the Nov. 3 general election.

"If the United States wanted to keep Daniel J. off the ballot," the state's motion said, "it should have intervened in the earlier litigation over that issue."

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