Justice Department sues Alaska over an election result that doesn't yet exist; Georgia officials say states, not Washington, run elections

The people who will count your vote on Nov. 3 work for your county, not for the Justice Department. That is the whole structure of Georgia elections — and it is why a move out of Washington landed hard: on October 22, the U.S. Justice Department sued Alaska and its elections director, Carol Beecher, before a single Alaska ballot had been cast, asking a federal judge to block certification of that state’s Senate race, according to Courthouse News Service.

At issue is an incumbent and a challenger who share a last name and nearly the same one. Alaska’s November ballot lists Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and challenger Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a Republican running with no party designation beside Democrat Mary Peltola and Republican Gerald Heikes, CNN reported. The Justice Department’s complaint invokes the National Voter Registration Act and asks U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason to treat certification as unlawful if Sullivan loses narrowly and confusion between the two Sullivans shaped the outcome, Deseret News reported.

Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, the Justice Department’s third-highest-ranking official, signed the filing, NBC News reported. It is a preemptive challenge to a result that does not yet exist.

None of this is the Justice Department’s job. The Constitution leaves the time, place, and manner of congressional elections to each state’s legislature. The federal Election Assistance Commission — itself a federal agency — says elections are usually administered at the county level and that it does not regulate them. Federal officials may enforce election laws and investigate crimes; they cannot approve, reject, or certify a state’s results.

“There’s no law that says DOJ can challenge ballots or delay certification,” said Justin Levitt, an election-law expert, according to Election Law Blog. Derek Muller, an election-law professor, went further: he called the filing “designed to win the press release rather than the litigation” and its legal argument “one of the worst ones I’ve ever seen,” Election Law Blog reported.

“It is not DOJ’s intention to, and it’s never our intention to, improperly interfere with elections or the state confirmation process or certification process,” U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said, according to NBC News.

As of Oct. 26, the case remained an early-stage legal filing, not a ruling; no Alaska votes have been counted, and no certification has been blocked.

Who actually runs Georgia’s ballot

Brad Raffensperger has been Georgia’s Secretary of State — the state’s chief election official — since January 2019. State law puts him over the ballot itself: he prescribes the forms, certifies each county’s qualified candidates, programs the voting equipment, receives the counties’ returns, and canvasses and computes the statewide vote. “We’re going to make sure that we have free, fair, and fast elections,” Raffensperger said, according to CNN.

Elections themselves run county by county. Every county’s board of elections, or its board of registrars acting as election superintendent, administers its own election; the Secretary of State supervises from above, and the State Election Board sets the uniform rules local officials must follow.

That means the people who build your ballot, staff your precinct, count your vote, and hear your challenge are neighbors in your own county. They answer to Georgia law and to Georgia voters — not to the White House or the Justice Department.

Before Nov. 3

Georgia’s next statewide election is the General and Special Election on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Early in-person voting runs October 13 through October 30, and Election Day polls are open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Voter registration for that election closed October 5. October 23 was the final day to request an absentee ballot. As of Oct. 26, early voting was still underway, and voters could continue casting ballots in person through Oct. 30.

To find the board that runs your county’s election — its name, address, and phone number — select your county on the Secretary of State’s County Election Offices page. Check your registration, polling place, and sample ballot through My Voter Page at mvp.sos.ga.gov. For a question about your own ballot, call the Secretary of State’s Elections Division at (404) 656-2871 or email [email protected]; that statewide office can put you through to the right county.

Your county’s elections board has a name, an address, and a phone number — and it answers to Georgia law, and to you.