By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (Reuters) – A judge ruled on Wednesday that a request by the campaign of Democratic US Senate candidate Mary Peltola of Alaska seeking the immediate release of records identifying absentee ballots was not reasonable.
• Peltola’s campaign sued state election officials last week seeking the immediate release of records identifying absentee ballots that were rejected in the voting during this month’s US midterm elections
• Peltola and the Republican candidate, incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan, are in a tight race for the US Senate seat
• As of late Wednesday, US media tallies showed Peltola with a 1.6% lead with 86% of the votes counted
• If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote, the race will head to a ranked-choice tabulation
• Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews ruled that Alaska’s Division of Elections is “currently busy processing ballots from the 2026 general election” and “simply lacks the capacity to generate the report from” the voter registration database at the behest of Peltola’s campaign
• “Even if the request were otherwise considered reasonable outside the peak election time of year, it is simply not reasonable nor required right now,” the ruling said
• Overall in the midterm elections, Democrats won a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, while President Donald Trump’s Republican Party suffered heavy losses in congressional and state races
• With Alaska still undecided, Democrats have a 55-44 Senate edge in the midterm tally
• An Alaska win would give Democrats 56 seats in the chamber
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
