Alaska Judge Rejects Peltola Campaign Request for Rejected Absentee Ballot List

An Alaska Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that a request by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign for a list of absentee voters whose ballots were rejected is not reasonable, while election officials keep counting votes in the state's ranked-vote Senate race. Judge Thomas Matthews wrote that the Division of Elections is busy processing general election ballots and lacks the capacity to generate the report from its voter registration database. Peltola's attorneys sued state officials last Friday, seeking the list and the reasons for each rejection, and said they wanted to ensure every qualified voter's ballot is counted. State attorneys argued the request would violate voter privacy and would amount to an electronic product that state law says cannot take priority over an agency's main duties. Alaska is the only Senate race in the country still uncalled; Peltola faces two-term Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. Overseas ballots are accepted up to 15 days after the election, making Nov. 18 the last day to receive them and the Division's target for ranked-vote tabulations if no one tops 50% of first choices. As of Thursday, Peltola had 121,487 votes to Sullivan's 117,512, a 1.6-point lead, according to The Associated Press.

Right-leaning outlets Fox News and The Daily Signal lead with Peltola losing in court, and both headlines pair that with her narrow lead. Fox adds that she lost part of her margin in Wednesday night's ballot drop, quotes the judge saying the timing could not be worse, includes campaign attorney Abha Kelly's remark that the process was going smoothly, and links a report alleging a covert spoiler-candidate scheme. The Daily Signal supplies the vote totals. Left-leaning HuffPost, using AP text, and The Washington Post lead with the ruling itself. HuffPost adds the Nov. 18 deadline, the campaign's stated purpose and the state's privacy argument, and the excerpts give no vote tally. Both sides agree on the judge, the date and the finding. Reuters and NewsNation largely track the ruling-focused framing.