US midterm campaign enters final weekend as Alaska, California ballot fights heat up
AI generated
WASHINGTON/ANCHORAGE – President Donald Trump’s administration pressed a criminal investigation into Alaska’s pivotal US Senate race and said on Oct 31 it would likely take its fight over thousands of California mail-in ballots to the Supreme Court, as the midterm campaign for control of Congress entered its final weekend.
In Alaska, federal prosecutors are investigating whether aides to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola helped to recruit a retired schoolteacher, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr, to run because his name is similar to the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan.
The closely contested race is seen as crucial to Democrats’ hopes of taking the Senate in the Nov 3 vote.
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race → enter → vote
It is one of 35 Senate races, along with all 435 House seats, that will decide whether Trump’s Republicans keep control of Congress for his final two years in office.
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Republicans → decide → office
Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority and a narrow edge in the House.
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Republicans → hold → House
Early voting has set a record.
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voting → set → record
More than 51 million Americans have already cast ballots in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day at the last midterms in 2022.
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who → cast → 2022
In California, a federal appeals court this week ruled 2-1 that the Justice Department had failed to justify its emergency bid to force the state to set aside mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters it alleges are likely noncitizens.
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it → rule → voters
“I hesitate to give a final answer, but I think probably the Supreme Court’s next on this one,” acting Deputy Attorney-General Trent McCotter told Fox News on Oct 31, adding that any request for Supreme Court consideration would come before the Nov 3 election.
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request → hesitate → election
Trump has been on a campaign blitz in multiple states over the past month but is spending Oct 31 at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Trump → spend → Beach
He returns to the campaign trail on Nov 1 in Kansas and Iowa.
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He → return → Kansas
Alaska probe intensifies
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probe → intensify → ?
The Justice Department’s top prosecutor in Alaska, US Attorney Michael Heyman, said at a press conference on Oct 30 that a recent New York Times article, saying there had been an effort to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan Jr had driven a “surge” of FBI resources onto the case.
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prosecutor → say → case
Heyman said he had assigned several prosecutors to it and that investigative steps were taking place “intensely and swiftly”.
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steps → say → place
Peltola and the campaign committee have denied involvement in any effort to recruit the second Sullivan.
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Peltola → deny → Sullivan
The retired teacher has denied coordinating with Peltola’s campaign.
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teacher → retire → campaign
Voters in Alaska have largely dismissed the fight over the ballot.
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Voters → dismiss → ballot
“I knew which Dan Sullivan was which Dan Sullivan, you know?
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you → know → ?
It’s very clear on the ballot,” Anchorage resident Mickey Buster, 36, said as he stood outside a polling place on Oct 31.
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he → ’ → Oct
But another Anchorage voter, Carol Riggs, 52, said she was disappointed by the entire situation and the possibility it “muddies the water for some voters, potentially”.
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it → say → voters
In Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers in another closely watched Senate race, El-Sayed’s feud with the rival he beat in the primary, US Representative Haley Stevens, flared again.
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he → face → primary
El-Sayed’s campaign asked Stevens to skip his events through Election Day so as “not to distract from the central issues of the campaign”, a person familiar with the matter said.
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person → ask → matter
Stevens has backed El-Sayed but demanded he condemn an outside group’s ad blaming Israel for high grocery prices and apologise for past rhetoric about Israel.
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he → back → Israel
“It’s certainly unhelpful to the El-Sayed campaign to have continued visible division within the party just before Election Day,” said Matt Grossmann, a political scientist at Michigan State University.
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Grossmann → ’ → University
Polls show El-Sayed has largely consolidated Democratic support.
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Sayed → show → support
Trump’s pressure campaign on states
The administration, beyond its bid to block the counting of ballots from more than 20,000 California voters it alleges could be noncitizens, has sued roughly 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking unredacted voter rolls.
The legal maneuvers have alarmed state election officials.
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maneuvers → block → officials
Under the Constitution, states have primary authority over how elections are run.
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elections → have → authority
On Oct 30, a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening to prosecute California election officials who defy its directives.
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who → order → directives
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on Oct 31 warned the state’s top federal judges that the Justice Department may seek warrants to seize ballots before results are certified, though he said he did not know of any pending request.
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he → warn → request
Newsom said in a letter to the judges that the only reason to seize ballots “would be to interfere” in the count.
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reason → say → count
Sean Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center for Justice said the efforts, while unlikely to win in court, aim at “creating uncertainty, sowing fear, distrust, chaos”, in hopes of pressuring officials such as Alaska’s lieutenant governor “to do something that they’re not supposed to do.”
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they → say → that
Even so, 76% of US voters are confident their ballots will be counted accurately, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from Sept 30 to Oct 5, with confidence about equally high among Republicans and Democrats.
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confidence → count → Republicans
The Aporia
