US midterm campaign enters final weekend as Alaska, California ballot fights heat up

US midterm campaign enters final weekend as Alaska, California ballot fights heat up AI generated WASHINGTON/ANCHORAGE – President Donald Trump’s administration pressed a criminal investigation into Alaska’s pivotal US Senate race and said on Oct 31 it would likely take its fight over thousands of California mail-in ballots to the Supreme Court, as the midterm campaign for control of Congress entered its final weekend. In Alaska, federal prosecutors are investigating whether aides to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola helped to recruit a retired schoolteacher, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr, to run because his name is similar to the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan. The closely contested race is seen as crucial to Democrats’ hopes of taking the Senate in the Nov 3 vote. asserted

It is one of 35 Senate races, along with all 435 House seats, that will decide whether Trump’s Republicans keep control of Congress for his final two years in office. asserted

Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority and a narrow edge in the House. asserted

Early voting has set a record. asserted

More than 51 million Americans have already cast ballots in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day at the last midterms in 2022. uncertain

In California, a federal appeals court this week ruled 2-1 that the Justice Department had failed to justify its emergency bid to force the state to set aside mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters it alleges are likely noncitizens. asserted

“I hesitate to give a final answer, but I think probably the Supreme Court’s next on this one,” acting Deputy Attorney-General Trent McCotter told Fox News on Oct 31, adding that any request for Supreme Court consideration would come before the Nov 3 election. asserted

Trump has been on a campaign blitz in multiple states over the past month but is spending Oct 31 at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. asserted

He returns to the campaign trail on Nov 1 in Kansas and Iowa. asserted

Alaska probe intensifies asserted

The Justice Department’s top prosecutor in Alaska, US Attorney Michael Heyman, said at a press conference on Oct 30 that a recent New York Times article, saying there had been an effort to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan Jr had driven a “surge” of FBI resources onto the case. asserted

Heyman said he had assigned several prosecutors to it and that investigative steps were taking place “intensely and swiftly”. asserted

Peltola and the campaign committee have denied involvement in any effort to recruit the second Sullivan. asserted

The retired teacher has denied coordinating with Peltola’s campaign. asserted

Voters in Alaska have largely dismissed the fight over the ballot. asserted

“I knew which Dan Sullivan was which Dan Sullivan, you know? asserted

It’s very clear on the ballot,” Anchorage resident Mickey Buster, 36, said as he stood outside a polling place on Oct 31. asserted

But another Anchorage voter, Carol Riggs, 52, said she was disappointed by the entire situation and the possibility it “muddies the water for some voters, potentially”. asserted

In Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers in another closely watched Senate race, El-Sayed’s feud with the rival he beat in the primary, US Representative Haley Stevens, flared again. asserted

El-Sayed’s campaign asked Stevens to skip his events through Election Day so as “not to distract from the central issues of the campaign”, a person familiar with the matter said. asserted

Stevens has backed El-Sayed but demanded he condemn an outside group’s ad blaming Israel for high grocery prices and apologise for past rhetoric about Israel. asserted

“It’s certainly unhelpful to the El-Sayed campaign to have continued visible division within the party just before Election Day,” said Matt Grossmann, a political scientist at Michigan State University. asserted

Polls show El-Sayed has largely consolidated Democratic support. asserted

Trump’s pressure campaign on states The administration, beyond its bid to block the counting of ballots from more than 20,000 California voters it alleges could be noncitizens, has sued roughly 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking unredacted voter rolls. The legal maneuvers have alarmed state election officials. uncertain

Under the Constitution, states have primary authority over how elections are run. asserted

On Oct 30, a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening to prosecute California election officials who defy its directives. asserted

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on Oct 31 warned the state’s top federal judges that the Justice Department may seek warrants to seize ballots before results are certified, though he said he did not know of any pending request. uncertain

Newsom said in a letter to the judges that the only reason to seize ballots “would be to interfere” in the count. asserted

Sean Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center for Justice said the efforts, while unlikely to win in court, aim at “creating uncertainty, sowing fear, distrust, chaos”, in hopes of pressuring officials such as Alaska’s lieutenant governor “to do something that they’re not supposed to do.” asserted

Even so, 76% of US voters are confident their ballots will be counted accurately, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from Sept 30 to Oct 5, with confidence about equally high among Republicans and Democrats. uncertain