The candidate Al Gross shook up last year’s special election for the U.S. House when, due to personal reasons the candidate resigned from running in the month of June. In June, it was four candidates who had received a spot on the ballot for the special general election. It was the Alaska Division of Elections decided to take him off the ballot, but did not replace him.
Friday Thursday, State Supreme Court confirmed that the Division of Elections was in the right “because the Division correctly applied a lawfully prescribed 64-day period” for the replacement of the name of a candidate.
The court’s ruling isn’t surprising and has no bearing on the results of the special election that was the first one to be held under Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system. This is because the high court made an unsubstantial decision in June with exactly the same result, and allowed an election for the general elections to occur in August with just three candidates on the list. The document, which is 30 pages long, is a court’s attempt to provide their reasons behind this decision.
Although they agreed with the division’s decision to not move to fifth overall finalist Tara Sweeney, the justices criticize the division for taking away Gross’s name from the ballot. An erroneous interpretation of the 64-day timeframe would have required election officials to keep their name on the list even though he resigned as a result, the court ruled. The court was a bit off because the people who brought the legal challenge were not able to block the removal of Gross’s name.
Mary Peltola ultimately won the special general election. Her place on the ballot was not involved in this case. She finished fourth in the special election, trailing Gross as well as over Sweeney.
She then won the general election, too and holds the one-and-only seat inside the U.S. House.
