In a pivotal development for Alaska’s closely watched Senate contest, Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled on Wednesday that the Peltola campaign’s request for detailed records on rejected absentee ballots was “simply not reasonable” at this stage of the count. The decision came as the Alaska Division of Elections continued to process the massive influx of ballots from the 2026 general election.
Judge cites timing and capacity concerns
Judge Matthews explained that the election office is “currently busy processing ballots” and lacks the capacity to generate a customized report from the voter registration database. He added that even if the request were reasonable outside of peak election season, it would still be “not reasonable nor required right now,” noting that the timing “could simply not be worse.”
Peltola campaign’s position
Campaign attorney Abha Kelly told the court that the request was intended to increase transparency, not to obtain confidential data or disrupt the count. Kelly argued that the information sought was already available to observers through existing decentralized channels and that the request would merely centralize what is already public.
State officials defend privacy and workload
Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton‑Walsh countered that the records are not public, emphasizing voter privacy: “Voters have a privacy interest in that because people who want to vote absentee presumably don’t want to mess it up and don’t want to be publicly exposed as having messed that up.” She also highlighted the significant burden a custom report would place on election staff during the busiest period of the election cycle.
Current vote totals and ranked‑choice implications
With roughly 86% of the expected vote counted and more than 248,000 ballots tallied, Peltola holds 121,487 first‑choice votes (48.9%) compared with incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan’s 117,512 (47.3%). The 3,975‑vote margin leaves both candidates below the 50% threshold, meaning the race will move to ranked‑choice tabulation once absentee counting concludes around Nov. 18. Certification is expected on Nov. 25.
Third‑ and fourth‑place candidates could still influence the outcome. Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. has 4,100 votes, while Gerald Heikes leads with 5,426. Their totals exceed the current margin between the top two, so second‑choice preferences from these candidates may prove decisive when lower‑finishers are eliminated under Alaska’s ranked‑choice system.
Related ballot measure
Alaska voters are also considering a referendum to repeal the ranked‑choice voting system. The measure is currently at 52.5% against repeal and 47.5% for, a margin still too close to call a week after Election Day.
Fox News’ Melissa Chrise, Matt Finn, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
