Key facts
- Judge Thomas Matthews ruled Alaska's Division of Elections lacks capacity to generate the requested report while processing 2026 general election ballots.
- The ruling said the request was not reasonable or required during the peak election period.
- US media tallies showed Peltola with a 1.6% lead over Sullivan with 86% of votes counted as of late Wednesday.
- Democrats won majorities in both the Senate and House in the midterms, with a 55-44 Senate edge pending Alaska.
An Alaska judge ruled on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, that a request by the campaign of Democratic US Senate candidate Mary Peltola for the immediate release of records identifying absentee ballots was not reasonable, according to a Reuters report published November 12.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Matthews wrote that Alaska's Division of Elections is "currently busy processing ballots from the 2026 general election" and "simply lacks the capacity to generate the report from" the voter registration database at the campaign's request. The ruling said that even if the request were otherwise considered reasonable outside the peak election time of year, "it is simply not reasonable nor required right now."
Peltola's campaign sued state election officials the previous week, seeking immediate release of records identifying absentee ballots rejected in the November midterm elections. Peltola and Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan are in a tight race for the Senate seat.
As of late Wednesday, US media tallies showed Peltola with a 1.6% lead with 86% of the votes counted. If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote, the race heads to a ranked-choice tabulation.
Nationally, Democrats won a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, while President Donald Trump's Republican Party lost congressional and state races. With Alaska still undecided, Democrats hold a 55-44 Senate edge in the midterm tally; an Alaska win would give them 56 seats.