Governor probing 'Decoy Dan' Sullivan election scandal warns system flaw hiding in plain sight

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy says an alleged Democratic effort to put a second candidate named Dan Sullivan into the state's Senate contest points to a structural weakness in how Alaska runs its elections. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, the Republican said his administration is examining fresh evidence only days before the midterms, and that state and federal authorities are conducting separate inquiries.

Dunleavy said The New York Times turned up information that state officials lacked last summer, when they first contested the second Sullivan's place on the ballot. That includes claimed involvement by operatives tied to Democratic nominee Mary Peltola. He pointed to the Times' finding that those operatives sought out spoiler candidates sharing the senator's name from around the state, even though the retired Petersburg schoolteacher, Dan Sullivan, had at first said no one recruited him.

The governor blamed ranked-choice voting, under which the top four finishers in a nonpartisan primary advance to a general election. He argued a traditional party primary would have eliminated the second Sullivan. Dunleavy said the episode has "cast a pall" over voters' confidence in the integrity of the state's elections.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →