It’s not often that I agree with Attorney General Todd Blanche. But when he was asked last week about the Two-Dan-Sullivans controversy in Alaska, he said, “If it’s cheating, if it’s fraud, is it illegal? And the answer is it certainly should be.”

I agree. At least I think I do. Blanche’s answer isn’t very precise. Cheating and fraud in elections are already against the law. And if somebody named Dan Sullivan wants to run for the Senate in Alaska, who’s to say that he can’t?

But last week the New York Times reported on its extensive investigation into efforts by the campaign staff of the Democratic nominee, Mary Peltola, to recruit an Alaskan—any Alaskan—named Dan Sullivan to run in order to dilute the vote for the “real” Dan Sullivan, the Republican nominee.

Republicans seem shocked that such a scandal could occur in these United States, but they shouldn’t be. The dustup in Alaska has sparked a burst of reporting about how common this kind of electoral skullduggery is. Who knew so much ballot stacking was going on, in Alaska and elsewhere?

Both parties are guilty. But the courts have generally found that most of this unseemly chicanery is legal. In fact, Alaska’s Supreme Court has already ruled that the Two-Dan-Sullivans ballot is legitimate, which raises the question of why the Trump administration is inserting its federal hands into a state’s election. The Constitution says that primary authority for administering elections resides in the states, and any necessary federal regulation is the responsibility of Congress. The executive branch has no role whatsoever.

Trump’s intervention is ironic. It’s rich that he’s making a federal case over a guy named Dan Sullivan who wants to run for the Senate in Alaska while he himself actually tried to stop the certification of a legitimate election on Jan. 6, 2021. Talk about, as the Bible says, straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel!

When the Trump era ends, we’ll need to think about whether and how to reestablish some of the norms and practices that we assumed were essential to our pre-Trump republic: A Department of Justice independent of the executive branch; no retailing of pardons out of the White House; an end to grotesque self-enrichment as a perk of holding office; and so on. And we’ve got to get rid of that tacky gold in the Oval Office, which is neither very American nor conservative.

But the place to start is elections. No president has done more to undermine confidence in American elections than Trump. Every American should cringe a little every time Trump announces to the world, as he did in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged.”

The world is learning a bad lesson from our toleration of Trump’s obvious lie. Following suit, the Bolsonaros, father and son, claim that the 2022 and 2026 elections in Brazil were rigged. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party claims that the recent election in Israel was “stolen.”

Confidence in its elections is essential to a democratic republic. It’s beyond the scope of this column to prescribe what’s needed to reestablish faith in our elections, but if the Peltola campaign recruited a spoiler to pull votes from an opponent, as Todd Blanche says, we should probably make that illegal.

But also, we’ve got to fix gerrymandering; no more mid-census redistricting; no more tolerance for the kinds of lies that Trump tells about the 2020 election; anyone who uses violence to stop the certification of an election should be prosecuted, not exonerated.

And foremost: Implement restraints on the flood of money that threatens the integrity of our elections.

Consider three issues:

Trump still refuses to concede the 2020 election and is already sowing doubt about the midterms;

Trillionaire Elon Musk has donated at least half a billion dollars to Republicans who will support his business interests;

Some guy in Alaska named Dan J. Sullivan is running for the Senate.

Who’s the greater threat to our republic?

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