Two candidates named Dan Sullivan will appear on the ballot in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race this November, alongside former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola and one other, to-be-determined candidate. 

Some Republicans are concerned that the “other” Dan Sullivan – a teacher named Dan J. Sullivan – could play “spoiler” and take away votes from the incumbent, Dan S. Sullivan.

However, Alaska’s use of ranked choice voting directly mitigates this problem – allowing voters to choose from a range of candidates (including two with the same name) without fear of splitting the vote or playing spoiler. 

Gamesmanship in “choose-one” elections

All across the country, it’s common for parties to prop up lesser-known candidates to “take away” votes and deny the election to a front-runner, including this election cycle. Republicans boost Green Party candidates to take votes away from Democrats. Democrats boost Libertarians to siphon votes from Republicans. 

In 2020, a Florida Republican consultant paid a “ghost” candidate named Alex Rodriguez to run as an independent against a Democrat with the same last name. The Democrat, Jose Rodriguez, lost by 32 votes. Alex Rodriguez got over 6,000 votes.

Ranked choice voting mitigates gamesmanship

These kinds of tricks are far less likely to work in Alaska because the state uses ranked choice voting in its general elections. With RCV, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If your first choice doesn’t have a chance to win, your vote counts for your next choice. 

The handful of voters uncertain about which Dan Sullivan is which can rank both of them on their ballots. Their vote will end up counting for the stronger of the two, which is likely to be Senator Dan Sullivan. Ultimately, the winning candidate – whether that’s Senator Dan Sullivan, Mary Peltola, or someone else – will win the job because they got a majority of votes, not because of trickery and quirky electoral math.

There is ample evidence from previous elections that Alaska voters listen to candidate cues and understand how to use their ranked choice ballots, whether successfully writing in M-U-R-K-O-W-S-K-I in 2010 or “ranking the red” (all Republican candidates) in 2022. Alaska voters ranking a lower-performing, third-party, or independent candidate first have also been more likely to rank backup choices. 

As FairVote’s Deb Otis shared about efforts to “game” the Alaska election, “I wonder if these tactics are just being carried over from organizations that have worked in other states, where this is a more well-established tactic… I think they’ll be disappointed with the impact here.”

To learn more about Alaska’s 2026 elections, check out FairVote’s analysis of the August primary.