With early voting underway in the United States midterm elections, Alaskans face an unusual choice on their Senate ballots: two Dan Sullivans.
One of them is the incumbent senator Dan S Sullivan, a Republican.
The other, Dan J Sullivan, is a retired teacher who lives in a remote Alaskan fishing village.
The Alaska Senate race is expected to be a close contest between Democrat Mary Peltola and the incumbent Sullivan. It's one of the races that could tip control of the US Senate.
Republicans contend that the second Sullivan was planted by Democrats to confuse voters and siphon votes away from the Republican candidate of the same name.
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Last week, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit seeking to block certification of the election result if the Republican loses, arguing the "sole purpose" of the second Sullivan's candidacy is to draw votes away from the incumbent.
This week, the New York Times reported that Democratic operatives with ties to Peltola's campaign were involved in an effort to recruit Sullivan as a so-called spoiler candidate. US President Donald Trump has since called for Peltola to be criminally prosecuted.
Democrats, including the Peltola campaign, have denied any involvement in his candidacy. Dan J Sullivan says he joined the race of his own accord and had no contact with the Peltola campaign.
His name will appear on the ballot without a party designation next to his name, while the senator will be listed as the Republican incumbent.
The Republican senator received more than 68,000 votes in the August primary while the challenging Sullivan got 4,107 — about 2 per cent of the total vote.
Alaska holds nonpartisan primaries in which all candidates run regardless of party affiliation. The four candidates with the most votes advance to the general election.
Peltola received the most votes in the primary, finishing around 13,500 votes ahead of the incumbent.
The names on the ballot will be Peltola, the two Sullivans and a Republican long-shot candidate, Gerald Heikes.
David McCuan, a political science professor at California's Sonoma State University, told SBS News Peltola has been polling several percentage points ahead of her main rival since September in a historically Republican state.
"The effect of [the controversy] is probably not enough to change the race, even though the race is very close," he said.
Alaska's ranked-choice voting system allows voters to select both Sullivans if confused. If the lower-performing candidate is eliminated, their votes go to the next ranked choice.
Fielding little-known candidates to divert votes from more prominent candidates is a long-standing tactic employed by both major US parties.
The controversial tactic, known as ballot stacking, is not inherently illegal, the New York Times reported. The newspaper said it did not uncover any evidence of illegal activity.
McCuan said while this particular instance was unusual, he doesn't foresee a successful legal challenge, particularly in the absence of any "smoking gun" tying Peltola to Dan J Sullivan's candidacy.
"What this looks like is American political campaign hijinks," McCuan said. "It's not necessarily unlawful."
Legal experts suggested the New York Times report will not affect the lawsuit filed by the US justice department.
Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, told the Associated Press the lawsuit would likely only kick in if Republicans narrowly lose the Alaska Senate race and that it probably would not survive long.
"It’s a dirty campaign trick," he said of the double Sullivan situation. "But now it’s in the hands of the voters, not litigation."
The Alaska Supreme Court rejected a previous Republican effort to remove the second Sullivan from the ballot, and the state's Republican officials ultimately decided how to list him on voting papers.
Alaska's other senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, has endorsed her colleague in the race, but said last week the lawsuit should never have been filed.
"Alaskans don’t need any help voting for their preferred candidates, and the state of Alaska has already handled this by clearly distinguishing the candidates on this year’s ballot," she said.
The Alaska dispute is one of multiple election-related legal battles involving the Trump administration ahead of the midterms.
In California, the administration sought to leave around 20,000 ballots uncounted over concerns that voters may not be US citizens. A federal judge rejected the request, citing insufficient evidence.
Federal prosecutors have also asked Washington state officials to set aside hundreds of ballots over similar concerns, which state officials have challenged.
Since the 2024 presidential election, Trump has signed a range of executive orders targeting voter ID and mail-in ballots, as well as pursuing changes to voting districts and early-access voting.
While Trump characterises his efforts as an attempt to protect US elections, voting rights experts say his strategy is part of a push to sow confusion, undermine confidence in the results and set the stage to contest them.
— With additional reporting by the Associated Press.
