A legal threat removed before voting day
A federal judge has dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit over Alaska's Senate election. The suit had asked the court to intervene in the state's count and would have opened the door to blocking certification of the result if Republican Senator Dan Sullivan lost. The dismissal removes, at least for now, the most direct legal threat hanging over one of the closest-watched races of the cycle.
Sullivan responded by saying he would honour the outcome of the election whatever it turns out to be. His Democratic rival, Representative Mary Peltola, has built her campaign around the state's independent streak and her record in the House.
Campaign schedule disrupted by a car crash
Peltola delayed campaign events after sustaining what her team described as minor injuries in a car crash. She was expected to return to the trail within days. The interruption came at the worst possible moment, with early voting already under way and the final weekend devoted to get-out-the-vote operations.
Alaska's governor had separately ordered a probe into allegations that Peltola's campaign recruited a man with the same name as her Republican opponent to run for the seat, a claim her campaign denies. Election officials say the ballot will list the candidates as filed.
National stakes on a local ballot
Voters go to the polls on Tuesday to decide all 435 House seats and 35 of the Senate's 100 seats. Control of both chambers is in play, and a handful of states, Alaska among them, could decide the Senate majority.
The Justice Department has also demanded that counties in California help identify noncitizen voters, part of a wider push by the administration into election administration. Civil rights groups have challenged several of those requests in court. Election officials in both parties have warned that late legal fights confuse voters and slow the count, even when the claims behind them are thin.
The Alaska ruling is unlikely to be the last word. Either side could appeal, and the state's count is expected to take days because of absentee ballots mailed from remote villages.