Alaska authorities said Thursday that they launched an investigation into Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign amid allegations that it helped put another candidate on the state ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent.
Austin McDaniel, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, said in an Oct. 29 statement that the Alaska Bureau of Investigation is acting at the request of Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy to investigate alleged conduct outlined in a New York Times report.
Peltola is running against Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, the incumbent senator. Reporting this week from The New York Times and other outlets said her campaign allegedly tried to recruit Dan J. Sullivan Jr., a retired teacher running as a third party, as part of an effort to confuse voters.
“We will work closely with our partners at the Alaska Department of Law to ensure that the facts are thoroughly examined and that anyone found to have violated state law is held accountable,” McDaniel said.
He noted that voters in the state want answers about the allegations but said further details cannot be released because of an ongoing investigation.
On Thursday, Peltola publicly denied knowing anything about those alleged efforts.
“I just want to clear the air,” she said at a bar in Juneau, Alaska, on Thursday. “I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”
The allegations, which the Trump administration has amplified as evidence of fraud, have prompted state officials and the House of Representatives to launch investigations into the former Democratic congresswoman’s campaign.
Dunleavy, a Republican, said earlier this week that his office launched an investigation into the campaign, and on Thursday said certification of the state election “could be stopped” because of the investigation into Peltola.
“We are going to investigate it, we’re going to follow the law, and if we conclude that there were things that should not have happened, let me put it that way, that are illegal, we will act on that. And that may, in fact, impact whether somebody is seated in the U.S. Senate,” he told NewsNation.
“We’re going to investigate if we find out there’s wrongdoing. And if that means that the certification then is stopped or changed, then that’s what happens.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said that the situation in Alaska is terrible and suggested Peltola be prosecuted and resign from her campaign because it’s “a fraud to the public.”
Describing it as “voter fraud at the highest level,” the president also accused Democrats of hatching a plot to influence the Senate race in the state.
Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign.
“Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.
Peltola’s and Dan J. Sullivan’s campaigns have not responded to requests for comment this week from The Epoch Times.
Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News on Wednesday that Democrats were trying to cheat in the race.
“They are trying to take votes away from the incumbent, not by running an election, and not by running on issues, but by putting up a person with the same name so they’d confuse Alaskans,” Blanche said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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