By Andrew Goudsward and Nathan Frandino
WASHINGTON/ANCHORAGE, Oct 30 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration stepped up criminal and civil investigations into allegations that Democrats conspired to recruit a spoiler candidate in a critical Senate race in Alaska, US officials said on Friday, injecting fresh uncertainty into Tuesday's congressional midterm election.
The Justice Department's top prosecutor in Alaska, US Attorney Michael Heyman, said at a press conference that a Wednesday New York Times article about the effort had driven a "surge" of FBI resources, adding that he had assigned several prosecutors to the case and that investigative steps were taking place "intensely and swiftly."
"Every Alaskan deserves a fair election, and they're going to get one," he said. "Anyone who tries to illegally deceive voters and interfere with the election, they'll answer for it."
Separately, the department on Friday asked a federal judge to block Alaska from certifying the election results if the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan, loses due to the presence of a third candidate, also named Daniel Sullivan.
The contest between Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola is widely seen as one of the few Senate races that could sway control of the chamber on November 3.
A record 48 million people have cast early ballots, more than any other midterm election in US history, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab, with even the American-born Pope Leo casting a ballot by mail.
If Democrats take one or both chambers of Congress, they intend to launch investigations into Trump's administration and increase pressure on the president to end the war against Iran.
KEY PATH FOR DEMOCRATS
If Democrats cannot flip the seat, their path to a majority narrows considerably, with the party needing to win at least two other races in mostly Republican states such as Ohio, Texas, Iowa and Kansas. Trump's fellow Republicans are likely to lose their slim majority in the US House of Representatives, according to nonpartisan analysts.
The New York Times this week reported that staffers from the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Party's Senate campaign arm helped recruit a retired teacher living in a remote fishing village who is named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr to appear on the ballot. Reuters has not been able to independently confirm the Times' reporting.
Peltola has denied knowing about any effort to recruit the second Dan Sullivan, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has also denied involvement. Sullivan, the retired teacher, has denied coordinating with Peltola's campaign.
It is not clear what, if any, laws may have been broken; both parties have engaged in "ballot stacking" by propping up lesser-known candidates to siphon votes from their opponents. Trump has called for Peltola to be prosecuted.
Heyman declined to offer specifics when asked what possible crimes were being examined, saying he would let the investigation proceed. He also said the probe had been ongoing for months and that the Times report had added urgency to the investigation, but did not explain how.
Peltola's campaign has asked a judge to dismiss the Justice Department's lawsuit, arguing it has no legal basis.
CALIFORNIA PROBE
The Justice Department has also pushed forward a legal case in California, issuing subpoenas to election officials as part of a criminal probe into alleged voting by noncitizens, according to copies of documents seen by Reuters.
A US appeals court on Friday rejected the department's request to temporarily block California from counting any mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters who the Trump administration alleges are likely noncitizens, the second time the court has done so this week.
A lower court judge had already denied the administration's request, finding it would potentially disenfranchise thousands of legal voters. California officials have said the Justice Department's assertions relied on suspect data.
The administration's legal moves represent an extraordinary federal intervention in state-run elections, which are administered locally under the US Constitution. Election officials around the country have told Reuters they are bracing for further legal challenges from Washington.
Trump has long sought to sow distrust of election results, falsely claiming for years that his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud. Voter fraud in the US is extremely rare, studies and investigations have found.
The president will campaign on Friday in Florida, the latest in a series of rallies he has headlined in states he won handily in 2024 but where Democrats are now competitive, as he tries to stave off Republican losses on Tuesday.
Trump said on Friday he would attend weekend rallies in Iowa and Kansas after all, a day after canceling them, telling reporters at the White House that Republicans in those states had called him and asked him to reconsider.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Trump defeated in the 2024 election, will rally for Democrats in Atlanta on Friday.
(Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Nathan Layne, Jana Winter, Max Schwarz, Kia Johnson, Maria Tsvetkova, Doina Chiacu and Jan Wolfe; Writing by Joseph Ax and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Jesse Mesner-Hage, Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Rosalba O'Brien)
