Alaska’s two ‘Dan Sullivans’: How common is ballot stacking, does it work?

The Alaska Senate ballot in the next week’s midterm elections in the United States features two candidates with the name Dan Sullivan – one the incumbent Republican senator and another a retired teacher with no prior political experience. Last week, The New York Times reported that aides to Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat challenging Republican Senator Sullivan for a crucial seat, helped recruit candidates bearing names similar to Sullivan’s in an apparent bid to manipulate the ballot and siphon votes from the incumbent. The controversy has triggered a political firestorm in the US, and prompted President Donald Trump to order a Justice Department investigation into alleged voter fraud. “It was a scheme. It was election fraud.