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Sen. Dan Sullivan's re-election campaign filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit from Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign on Monday, arguing the lawsuit was seeking to force Alaska elections officials to ignore state law.
Sullivan and Peltola remain locked in a razor-thin race for U.S. Senate after last week's election. Peltola's campaign filed a lawsuit against the Alaska Division of Elections on Friday seeking access to records for absentee ballots that were preliminarily rejected in the midterm election.
The Division responded to the lawsuit by stating that individual voters have yet to be notified that their ballots were rejected, and it would be improper to grant Peltola's campaign access to that data before voters themselves.
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Sullivan's campaign argued on Monday that the lawsuit is an attempt to "rig the system" in Peltola's favor.
"It should surprise no one that the same D.C. lawyers who spent more than a year conspiring with Mary Peltola’s campaign to deceive Alaskan voters are now asking a court to let her campaign ignore Alaska law and change the rules while votes are still being counted," said Nate Adams, campaign spokesman. "Peltola’s lawsuit is only further evidence that she is not confident she can win on the merits alone, which is why her campaign is once again attempting to rig the system in her favor."
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"Our campaign is following Alaska precedent to make sure every legally cast ballot is counted, and we remain confident that when every one of those ballots is counted, Senator Sullivan will win," Adams continued.
As of Monday, Peltola leads Sullivan by just over 600 votes, with over 25% of votes remaining to be counted.
Sullivan and the GOP have condemned Democrats for a "Decoy Dan" scheme that saw an independent Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot in an alleged plot to siphon votes from the Republican incumbent.
Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the other Sullivan tried to get on the general election ballot as Daniel S. Sullivan, using the middle initial of the incumbent instead of his own.
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"That kind of opened our eyes and we began an investigation back there, the Division of Elections did, to determine if this was a legitimate candidacy, and the Division of Elections at that time found that was not and did not put him on the ballot," Dunleavy said. "Then there was a court case and the Supreme Court in the end ruled against the Division of Elections in Alaska, and they must go on the ballot."
After a New York Times report tied potential knowledge of the "Decoy Dan" scheme to Peltola's campaign, Dunleavy reopened the investigation of possible wrongdoing.
Fox News' Eric Mack contributed to this report.
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