The dirty play by the Democrats in Alaska may be yielding results, and a Republican senator could lose his seat

In the Senate election for Alaska, one of the dirtiest strategies in modern U.S. politics seems to be paying off. With over 98% of the ballots counted, former Democratic Representative Mary Peltola has garnered 102,701 votes compared to the 102,075 of the current Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan; that is, a difference of 626 votes.

But in Alaska, if no candidate reaches 50% of the votes as a first choice, the election is decided through the ranked-choice voting system, whose official count is scheduled to begin in mid-November.

Under this system, voters can choose more than one candidate in order of preference, with only the first choice being counted initially. If no candidate exceeds 50% of the votes in the first round of counting, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated.

The votes of those who chose that eliminated candidate as their first choice are then recounted, redistributing their second preference among the remaining candidates. If this still does not give any candidate more than 50%, the process repeats.

And this is where the left's "spoiler candidate" strategy comes into play. According to the electoral data, the other Dan Sullivan appearing on the ballot—Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired professor with no ties to the Republican party— has received over 3,500 votes.

Assuming that at least some of the votes for Sullivan Jr. were actually intended for the Republican senator, it is evident that the Democratic strategy of recruiting a candidate with the same name as Sullivan to place on the ballot and siphon votes seems to have succeeded.

In this scenario, as positions currently stand, Sullivan Jr. would be eliminated in the first round and the second choice of his voters would be redistributed among the remaining candidates. After that, the other Republican candidate on the ballot, Gerald Heikes, would be eliminated, leaving the final decision between Sullivan and Peltola.

However, whenever this result arrives, it will not alter the control of the Upper Chamber, as the Democrats have already secured the majority in the Senate last night. The opposition has at least 54 guaranteed seats, and they could expand that majority to 56 seats when the process in Alaska concludes and the still pending election in Mississippi ends.