Alaska Judge Rules Against Mary Peltola Over Ballot Request

Detailed summary

Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled Wednesday that state election officials were not required to provide the information, as the request could not reasonably be fulfilled…

A judge in Alaska has ruled against Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign in its efforts to obtain records identifying absentee ballots that have been rejected, saying the request was "not reasonable."

Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled on Wednesday that state election officials were not required to provide the information, as the request could not reasonably be fulfilled while they were working to process ballots from last week's midterm elections.

"The timing of the Campaign's request could simply not be worse," Matthews said in his ruling.

The judge also raised concerns about voter privacy, saying the state could not reasonably redact confidential information from the records before producing them at this time.

Peltola's campaign filed a lawsuit last Friday seeking information about rejected absentee ballots and the reasons for their rejection, arguing that it wanted to ensure all eligible votes are counted.

Newsweek has contacted Peltola's campaign for comment via email outside regular working hours.

The U.S. Senate race in Alaska is the only one that has not been called, with Peltola currently narrowly ahead of incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. About 86 percent of votes have been counted as of early Thursday.

Alaska allows absentee ballots mailed from within the U.S. to arrive up to 10 days after Election Day, while ballots sent from overseas can arrive up to 15 days after. This means election officials can continue receiving ballots for two weeks after the election.

In its lawsuit, the Peltola campaign had sought to obtain the initial reports of rejected ballots provided to election observers, arguing that the information was public record.

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