this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
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Elections chief says bid by ex-teacher to challenge senator with same name was filed ‘to confuse or mislead’ voters

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[–] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 6 points 17 hours ago

Alaska elections director, Carol Beecher, wrote that the “utterly unprecedented facts” in the case led her to conclude that Dan J Sullivan’s declaration of candidacy for US Senate “was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality”.

My dude, if you disqualified candidates for their actions to confuse, mislead, and compromise election integrity, there would be no republicans left on the ballot.

[–] Instigate@aussie.zone 8 points 21 hours ago

Kinda reminds me of the story of how David X Cohen (Futurama, Disenchantment, The Simpsons) got the middle initial X when his middle name is Samuel: when he went to be registered with The Writers Guild there was already a David S Cohen, and they don’t allow two people with identical names to be registered, so he chose X because it sounds more ‘sci-fi-ish’.

[–] webkitten@piefed.social 1 points 17 hours ago

So confusing to not only have a different middle name but also a different party identifier at the end!

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 56 points 1 day ago (3 children)

That feels illegal. You can't enter the race just because you share a name with someone else?

[–] Carmakazi@piefed.social 25 points 1 day ago

If they can paint a picture that it was not a sincere and genuine campaign and was in fact a ploy to pull votes away from the real candidate, sure.

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Candidates typically use a distinct version of the name in that case, such as "Daniel" instead of "Dan", or with a distinct middle initial included. A serious candidate does not usually want to be confused with their opponent.

[–] baronvonj@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They usually have the nominating party listed for each candidate, too.

[–] kn33@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In this case, both would be "Dan Sullivan (R)"

The way this race lists them, it's based on what party the candidate proclaims themselves to be.

[–] baronvonj@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

Oh this is for a primary election. Still a stupid decision by the chief.

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Republicans have purposely run someone (as an independent) with the same name as the Democrat in the past, hoping to peel off dumb voters. Fooling a couple hundred can be all it takes sometimes.

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 21 points 1 day ago

Some bullshit ruling there. Saying you can't run because of your name is wild.

[–] EndOfLine@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

Just gotta call out this scene from season 5 of Fargo

[–] matt1126@feddit.uk 17 points 1 day ago

“Sorry that username is already taken“