Trump calls for namesake’s votes to be transferred to Alaska senator — Der Spiegel

US President Donald Trump has called for votes cast for another candidate with an almost identical name — Daniel J. Sullivan — to be credited to incumbent Republican Senator from Alaska Dan Sullivan. Der Spiegel reports.

Trump’s statement during the count

In a Truth Social post, Trump said that ballots cast for Daniel J. Sullivan should be immediately credited to the “real” Dan Sullivan. According to the president, the incumbent senator would then win easily.

Trump repeated allegations that Daniel J. Sullivan was placed on the ballot allegedly so that, due to the similarity of their names, the incumbent Republican senator would lose some votes.

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Tight race for a Senate seat

Votes are being counted in Alaska’s US Senate election. According to the Associated Press, Democratic Party candidate Mary Peltola was leading incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan by 0.3 percentage points. Daniel J. Sullivan had 1.7% of the vote.

The count in the state may take several days due to the large number of remote areas. On election day, the incumbent senator called the situation the biggest election fraud scandal in Alaska’s history.

As The New York Times wrote before the election, Democratic Party workers allegedly deliberately sought candidates with the same names in order to take votes away from the Republican senator. Among them was retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan from a remote fishing village, who had not previously appeared as a politician. Mary Peltola rejected these allegations.