Alaska judge rules a request by Peltola campaign for ballot data in Senate race is ‘not reasonable’

JUNEAU, Alaska — An Alaska judge ruled Wednesday that a request by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign for a list of absentee voters whose ballots have been rejected is “not reasonable,” particularly given the time crunch election officials face as they continue counting ballots from last week’s election.

Ballots are still being tallied in the ranked vote election, in which Peltola and two-term Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan are the main contenders. Alaska’s is the only Senate race in the country that remained too early to call.

The state accepts ballots up to 15 days after general elections from overseas voters, making Nov. 18 the final day to receive them. That date is also the Division of Elections’ target for conducting ranked vote tabulations if no candidate wins more than 50% of the first-choice votes.

Attorneys for Peltola’s campaign last Friday sued state elections officials, seeking a list of voters whose absentee ballots have been rejected and the reasons for the rejections. They said their intent was to ensure that all qualified voters have their ballots counted.

But attorneys for the state said the information requested would violate voter privacy. They also said producing such a list from a…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business