Politics and views in the United States

AG doubles down on Alaska election lawsuit, Montanans vote on protections for citizen-led ballot initiatives, and advocacy groups work to protect the Native vote in a number of states.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

It's not to let the federal government take over the Alaska system of selecting their next senator.

It's asking the court to step in where the Alaska Supreme Court didn't to look at federal law and, if necessary, to allow a process for Alaska to decide who should be certified as the winner.

Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the Justice Department as it filed a preemptive lawsuit to block the certification of Alaska's Senate election if Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan loses.

The agency claims potential voter confusion over candidates with the same first and last names is the reason for the move.

It would be valid grounds to pause the certification.

Besides the incumbent Senator, Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired school teacher, is running for the Senate seat without a party affiliation.

He denies that his campaign is intended to confuse voters and siphon votes away from the incumbent.

That did not stop Republican election officials in the last frontier from attempting to remove the retired teacher from the ballot.

But a state court ruled, and the Alaska Supreme Court upheld, that he had filed all of his paperwork correctly, and his name should be put back on the ballot.

Election officials in Alaska have taken efforts to differentiate between the two Sullivans, putting their middle initials on the ballot, and noting the incumbent Sullivan's partisan affiliation.

In Montana, citizen-led ballot initiatives have shaped state policies for more than a century.

Now, voters will decide whether to enshrine protections for ballot initiatives in the state constitution.

Constitutional Initiative 133 would protect initiative and referendum powers of citizens in the state constitution.

Danny Hess, with Montanans to the side, says ballot initiative processes have come under attack in multiple states, including Montana, in recent years.

In the 2025 legislative session in Montana, lawmakers introduced more than 20 bills to curb the practice.

Without CI-133, we see the door left open to continued attempts to really curb the power of Montanans to use the ballot initiative process and to propose and vote on laws that affect their lives.

Opponents argue the initiative is vague and eliminates important protections.

Through the process, Montanans have voted on income and sales taxes, corporate campaign spending, and the legalization of recreational marijuana, which voters approved in 2020.

Volunteers in South Dakota are heading to polling places to help protect Native voting rights.

Volunteers will be sent to 40 polling locations across the state, covering all nine reservations and Rapid City, with a large Lakota population.

Voting rights advocates worry that a new state law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote may cause issues at the polls.

Samantha Blenke, with the Native American Rights Fund, stresses Native American voters face many barriers when trying to cast their ballots.

That includes long distances to election offices, requiring a physical address to register to vote, and reducing the number of polling places.

If someone's told, hey, just go back home and get the right document and come back, that could be a three-hour drive.

So it's really important to have assistance on the spot.

And, of course, our immediate goal is to make sure that voters can exercise their rights during the election.

I'm Zamone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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