Americans vote on 3 November. Prices are high, and most voters say this is their main worry. But the last week of the campaign was about Alaska, where two men share the same name. Donald Trump and his government went to court to stop that result before anyone had voted.
On 3 November Americans renew the whole House and a third of the Senate; Democrats need a net gain of four seats to prise the upper chamber from a 53-47 Republican majority. The economy they are judging cuts two ways: third-quarter GDP grew at 3.4% a year, while September prices rose 3.6% — well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. “The country is doing unbelievably well,” Trump told reporters on his way to a South Carolina rally. Voters are unconvinced: the cost of living remains, by some distance, their first concern.
Yet the closing week belonged to Alaska. Two men named Dan Sullivan sit on the Senate ballot — the Republican incumbent, and a retired schoolteacher. On Wednesday the New York Times reported that the campaign of the Democratic challenger, Mary Peltola, had worked with national party aides to recruit same-name “spoiler” candidates. The response was extraordinary: the president and his justice department filed suit pre-emptively, to block certification of the Alaska result should the incumbent lose. A congressional inquiry, subpoenas and a governor’s investigation followed, with Trump demanding Peltola’s prosecution.
Refusing a result in advance is the reflex of a government that treats defeat as fraud by definition. The opposing case, though, deserves a fair hearing. The reporting is solid, the recruitment was denied before it was confirmed, and a party that casts itself as the guardian of democratic norms did go looking for decoys to confuse voters. Ballot stacking is legal and both sides use it — which indicts the practice rather than excusing this instance of it.
Meanwhile the most expensive midterm cycle in history pours its money into advertising: farmer-funded spots attacking the administration’s record on prices, and in Ohio an attack ad withdrawn after a wave of revulsion. Obama campaigned in Georgia; Trump urged supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot”. Both camps are rehearsing their account of Tuesday night before a single vote is counted. When the story of an election is written in advance, what is left for the voters to decide?