As the campaign for control of the US Congress reached its final weekend, the Trump administration stepped up its legal intervention in the Alaska Senate race while the number of Americans casting early ballots neared 50 million, a record for a midterm election.
The Department of Justice accelerated its criminal investigation in Alaska on Friday, following reports that aides to a Democratic Senate candidate recruited a retired schoolteacher from a remote fishing village to get on the ballot because he has the same name as the Republican incumbent.
The DOJ, acting on a civil lawsuit that President Donald Trump said he instigated, also filed further motions in an attempt to block the state of Alaska from certifying the Senate results if the Republican incumbent, Dan S. Sullivan, loses a close race on a ballot that includes the nonpartisan candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.
The closely contested race in Alaska is seen as crucial for the Democrats if they hope to take control of the Senate from Trump’s Republicans in Tuesday’s vote.
