An Anchorage Superior Court judge on Tuesday denied a request by the Alaska Democratic Party to have the name of a jailed non-resident removed from Alaska’s U.S. House ballot.
Alaska Democratic Party Executive Director Lindsay Kavanaugh said Tuesday evening that the party planned to appeal the decision to the Alaska Supreme Court.
Eric Hafner, a New Jersey man serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for threatening elected officials, is running for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat despite never having resided in the state. Running as a Democrat, he finished sixth in the 12-way primary with 467 votes.
Under Alaska’s open primary system, the top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election. But when the third- and fourth-place finishers — both Republicans — dropped out of the race, the Alaska Division of Elections placed the fifth- and sixth-place finishers on the ballot.
The Alaska Democratic Party sued the state earlier this month, asking a judge to stop Hafner’s name from appearing on the ballot. The plaintiffs’ argument was twofold. First, they argued that Alaska law does not allow the sixth-place finisher to be elevated onto the ballot when other candidates drop out. Second, they argued that even if the sixth-place finisher could be placed on the ballot, Hafner should not have been allowed to appear on the ballot because he cannot fulfill the residency requirements of an elected member of Congress….
The first-place finisher in Alaska’s primary is Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, who had nearly 51% of primary votes. In second with 26% was Republican challenger Nick Begich III, a businessman who lost twice to Peltola in 2022. The contest is largely seen as a high-stakes contest between Peltola and Begich. Alaska’s seat is one of only a handful across the country seen as winnable by either party.
The Alaska Democratic Party had argued that Hafner, who is running as a Democrat, could impact the election despite having essentially no chance of winning, by taking votes away from Peltola.
Under Alaska’s ranked choice election system, the leading candidate must secure over 50% of first-place votes to win outright. Otherwise, the winner is determined through a tabulation or instant runoff.
Wheeles wrote that “ranked choice voting neutralizes any claim of harm because, in theory, every voter can rank all candidates if they choose.”