Alaska Ranked-Choice Voting Could Sink Challenge to Senate Result: Analysts

Alaska's ranked-choice voting system appears to mitigate potential challenges to the Senate election result, according to experts. As of Friday morning, Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan by a narrow margin of 47.88 percent to 48.17 percent, with 74 percent of the votes counted. A third candidate, Gerald L. Heikes, received 2.27 percent of the vote, while Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a decoy candidate, garnered 1.68 percent.

The latter candidate ultimately ran without party affiliation, after being accused of being a fake candidate recruited by Democrats to siphon votes from the incumbent.

Peltola's small lead could either strengthen or diminish as more votes are expected to come in. The outcome of the race may change depending on the allocation of votes from the eliminated candidates, such as Sullivan Jr. and Heikes. However, political science professors argue that Alaska's ranked-choice voting system largely prevents the outcome from changing due to the presence of these candidates.

Professor Mark Brown from Capital University School of Law stated that the system is designed in such a way that the last-place candidate will be eliminated, and ballots cast for them will be transferred to voters' next choices, ultimately leading to one candidate securing a majority.

Experts also disagree with Trump's claims that the ranked-choice voting system is corrupt and should not be allowed. They argue that there is no issue with the system, and the lawsuit filed by the Trump administration to prevent the certification of the result if the Senator lost due to the decoy candidate's votes is meritless. Federal laws, such as the Ku Klux Act and the wire fraud statute, would not apply to the situation, as they would run into serious First Amendment problems.

While there may be potential legal issues if Sullivan Jr. had been paid to run, it is unlikely that they could overturn the election.