Alaska's toss-up Senate race was already the most closely watched contest of the final week. On Thursday it became a federal investigation too, after ABC News and the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department had issued subpoenas over an alleged effort to put a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.

The subpoenas follow a New York Times report that the effort to recruit the second Dan Sullivan was led by the campaign of Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman trying to flip the seat. The Times said the plan was intended to confuse Alaskans who wanted to support the Republican incumbent, also named Dan Sullivan. Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have denied involvement for months and repeated those denials after the story published.

NPR reports that Alaska's Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, announced a criminal inquiry into the matter on Thursday, and that the state's Senate race could determine which party controls the chamber next year. NPR also notes that it has not independently confirmed the Times' reporting. The Times said its story was based on interviews and communications among Peltola's attorneys and advisers and senior DSCC aides.

The political reaction was immediate. "Mary Peltola and her campaign have spent months gaslighting Alaskans, denying a scheme they were running all along," Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Senator Sullivan, said in a statement quoted by NPR. President Donald Trump called the findings "Voter Fraud at the Highest Level" in an online post. Peltola, campaigning on Wednesday, called the story a distraction, according to Alaska Public Media; the non-incumbent Sullivan did not respond to the outlet's requests for comment and has previously said running was his own decision.

The legal picture is unusually murky for a case this close to an election. The Guardian reports that the Justice Department has historically avoided overt investigative actions against candidates in the weeks before a vote, or other public steps that could be read as trying to influence the outcome. Election law experts told the paper they were unaware of what federal law would justify the investigation.

"I don't know what they're putting out subpoenas to investigate because I don't know what federal violations are implicated that DoJ would have jurisdiction over," Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department official under Joe Biden, told the Guardian. "Sure makes it seem like the point of the investigation is to become the story."

The subpoenas landed the same day the department issued subpoenas to California officials, widening its scrutiny of local election administration. The Guardian frames both moves as part of an aggressive stretch by the department in a politically sensitive period. That timing is the core of the criticism: the department has generally kept investigations of candidates quiet close to elections, and the Alaska subpoenas were reported by two news organisations rather than announced. Whether the investigation produces charges before Tuesday, or becomes another post-election dispute, depends on evidence the public has not seen. For now the practical effect is that a Senate race that could decide control of the chamber is being argued in three venues at once — a federal investigation, a state criminal inquiry and a pending lawsuit over certification.

Separately, Trump said last week that he had ordered the Justice Department to file a lawsuit to block certification of the Alaska Senate election if Sullivan does not win. That suit is pending, according to the Guardian. The combination of a pending federal suit, a state criminal inquiry and reported federal subpoenas means the result on Tuesday may not be the end of the contest.

For Alaska voters, the practical effect is confusion on top of a close race. The two Sullivans share a name on the ballot; one is the incumbent Republican, the other a candidate whose candidacy the Times links to Democratic operatives. Peltola's allies say the story is a late hit; Republicans say it confirms a scheme. Neither claim has been tested in court, and no charges have been announced.

The broader context is a midterm cycle in which control of the Senate has narrowed to a handful of states, and both parties are treating Alaska as live. Related coverage on this site includes the Georgia rally where Obama mocked Trump's Oval Office decor, the Fed's survey of household finances and UK business investment data.

The governor's inquiry and the reported federal subpoenas are separate tracks, and neither has produced a public finding.The limits of this account matter. The subpoenas are reported by ABC News and the Associated Press, not confirmed by the Justice Department; NPR has not independently verified the Times reporting; and the governor's inquiry has not produced findings. No one has been charged, and both campaigns dispute the central allegation. What is established is the sequence: a Times report, a state inquiry, reported federal subpoenas and a pending suit over certification.