Decoy Dan and Alaska's Voting System | Anchorage News

Alaska’s election chaos just got weirder with two Dansk-sounding candidates—incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan and “Petersburg Dan”—sparking a national political circus. Outside players are exploiting the name confusion to muddy the waters and waste votes, a tactic that’s been around since 2008 when Vic Vickers nearly derailed Ted Stevens. Critics blame Alaska’s open primary and ranked-choice system, but that’s a myth—the Constitution lets federal candidates run regardless of state rules. In fact, ranked-choice voting actually protects voters: even if you’re confused, your vote for the real Senator Sullivan still counts. This stunt is pure political theater meant to push for closed primaries—which would hurt Alaskans who aren’t party members. Don’t let them convince you Alaska’s system is broken—it’s built to handle these tricks.

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