President Trump declared Alaska’s Senate contest “over” and pronounced Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan the winner, even as outstanding ballots left the outcome against former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola far from certain.

Trump made the declaration Saturday while Sullivan trailed Peltola by fewer than 700 votes. The narrow gap, combined with Alaska’s lengthy counting process and ranked choice system, meant the race had not reached the tidy ending Trump demanded.

The president has repeatedly objected to Daniel J. Sullivan appearing on the ballot. Trump has called the similarly named candidate a “decoy” and described his presence as a Democratic ploy designed to divert votes from Sen. Sullivan.

Trump has also urged the Justice Department to investigate the ballot controversy. On Saturday, however, he went beyond demanding scrutiny and simply announced that his favored candidate had already won.

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“Daniel Sullivan is leading substantially in the Alaska Senatorial Race. When you add Daniel (3,600, 1.68%) into Dan, and Gerald Heikes (4,846, 2.27%), Senator Dan Sullivan is up by thousands of Votes. Remember, Heikes was also fraudulently put into the Race,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump’s calculation treated votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan and Gerald Heikes as though they belonged to Sen. Sullivan. That arithmetic produced the decisive Republican victory Trump wanted, but it did not reflect the actual tally being counted by Alaska election officials.

“I don’t know what takes so long to announce his win. This should be immediate! Anyone voting for Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr., a man who tried to change his middle initial, but was unable to get it done in time, and who was otherwise nonpolitical – Never even voted – is a vote for Senator Dan Sullivan. The Alaska Race is OVER. Dan Sullivan WON, BY A LOT!” Trump wrote.

Alaska’s geography and election rules make its vote count a slow process. The state covers 586,000 square miles and allows ballots to arrive and be counted for 10 days after Election Day.

Overseas ballots receive an even longer window, with 15 days allowed for their arrival. Those rules ensure the final count cannot always match the speed of a Truth Social proclamation.

Alaska also uses ranked choice voting. When a voter’s first choice candidate is eliminated, that ballot transfers to the voter’s next listed choice, adding another stage before the final result can be determined.

Trump had already proposed Thursday that Sullivan receive votes cast for minor candidates. His suggestion effectively asked election officials to take ballots marked for other people and hand them to the Republican senator.

“The vote totals for the Fake Dan Sullivan, plus the other ‘slug’ that the Dems put on the Ballot, should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over,” Trump wrote.

A victory for Sullivan would keep him from joining the Republicans who lost to Democrats in red states during Tuesday’s electoral bloodbath. Yet the counting process, rather than Trump’s preferred reassignment of votes, remained the mechanism for deciding the Alaska contest.

A New York Times analysis published Nov. 5 found that Sullivan was unlikely to make major gains through the ranked choice retabulation. According to that analysis, Peltola was the second choice of many voters who supported Daniel J. Sullivan.

The Times had previously reported that Peltola’s allies recruited Daniel J. Sullivan to enter the race. That report fed Republican complaints that the candidate’s name was intended to confuse voters and drain support from the senator.

When Trump posted his declaration, only 74% of Alaska precincts were reporting. With more ballots outstanding and the ranked choice process still relevant, the president’s announcement was emphatic, but the officially counted race had not yet delivered his desired conclusion.

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