With five days left before Election Day, Alaska's U.S. Senate race has collided with a bureaucratic fluke: two men named Dan Sullivan are on the same ballot, and the Trump administration's Justice Department wants a federal judge to make sure that coincidence doesn't cost Republicans the seat.

The DOJ sued Alaska's Division of Elections on Oct. 22, asking the court to block or delay certification of the Senate race in one specific scenario: if Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola, but would have won had every vote for a second candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., gone to him instead. The Petersburg retiree — a former elementary schoolteacher with no connection to the senator — has been on the ballot since June, when the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that removing him at Republican officials' request would violate his right to run, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

President Trump said he personally ordered the lawsuit, pointing to the namesake candidate's August primary vote total — more than 3,200 ballots, by preliminary state counts — as a margin that "could be the difference." Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the suit as narrowly aimed at voter confusion rather than an attempt to overturn an election outright, telling reporters: "It's not saying, 'Don't certify.' ... If a court ultimately determines that it was decided because of confusion and not the will of the voters, then we do not think the states should certify."

Alaska says the feds have no case

Alaska's Division of Elections, run by Republican director Carol Beecher, filed a 20-page motion Monday calling the lawsuit baseless. The state argues the ballot already distinguishes the two men — one listed as the sitting senator, the other as "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." with no party label — and that Alaska's ranked-choice system lets any genuinely confused voter simply rank both. "The United States has no legal authority over how candidates secure their place on the ballot in state elections," the filing states, according to Alaska Public Media.

Democrat Mary Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee moved to dismiss days earlier, with Peltola calling the lawsuit "flagrant, flagrant corruption." Even Alaska's senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, broke with the administration, saying the DOJ should never have filed the case. Sen. Sullivan's own campaign distanced itself from the suit, saying it had "no prior knowledge of this lawsuit and no role in it," according to Alaska Beacon.

"This case is a press release disguised as a lawsuit." — Joshua Douglas, University of Kentucky election law professor

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason, who pointedly noted the DOJ sued only after early voting had already begun and months after the state Supreme Court settled the ballot question, has put the case on an expedited track. She ordered the department's written response by 3 p.m. Thursday — today — with Alaska's reply due by noon Friday, according to a Democracy Docket report on the filings. Beecher has asked Gleason to rule by Nov. 2 — the day before polls open.

The fight reaches well beyond one state's ballot oddity. Control of the U.S. Senate could come down to a small number of close races, and a federal ruling that casts doubt on certification timelines — even over a single duplicate name in Alaska — could set a precedent other campaigns watch closely in the campaign's final hours. For now, Alaskans are voting in a race where a judge, not just the ballots, may end up deciding whether the count stands on schedule.