An alleged political dirty trick in Alaska’s 2026 U.S. Senate race highlighted unexpected vulnerabilities in ranked-choice voting systems. The Decoy Candidate: A retired schoolteacher registered as Republican "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." to run alongside incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan. With similar names and closely mimicked campaign branding, critics alleged the campaign was designed to siphon votes by confusing the electorate. Ties to Opponents: Metadata from the challenger's campaign announcements linked the filing to a Democratic political consultant with connections to PACs supporting Democratic candidate Mary Peltola. System Vulnerability: In Alaska’s top-four primary and ranked-choice system, diverting even a tiny percentage of votes to a decoy candidate can trigger a cascade elimination that prematurely knocks out an incumbent. State vs. Federal Response: Although the Alaska Division of Elections attempted to disqualify the decoy for bad faith, the Alaska Supreme Court reinstated him, ruling that state law only evaluates objective filing criteria (like age and residency), not internal motives. Because state civil mechanisms fell short, the DOJ and FBI stepped in to launch a federal criminal grand jury investigation under civil rights conspiracy and wire fraud statutes. The Broader Dilemma: As alternative voting systems spread nationwide, election officials face an unresolved challenge: whether granting regulators subjective power to police candidates' motives protects democracy or creates an even greater threat.