DOJ Sues to Kill Alaska's Senate Race Result — And That's Just the Start of Today's News

It is not a slow news day.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to block the operation of Alaska's ranked-choice voting system — a mechanism that has, in recent cycles, made the state's Senate seat more competitive than Republicans prefer. The suit argues the system conflicts with federal election law. Critics are calling it something more direct: an attempt by the executive branch to place a thumb on the scale of its own electoral future.

Read nextThe DOJ Just Picked a Fight With Alaska's Elections — and Legal Experts Aren't Buying It

The legal argument is genuinely contested. Courts have reached different conclusions on ranked-choice voting in different jurisdictions, and the DOJ can point to real statutory questions. But the timing — days before Election Day, with a Democrat within striking distance of a seat that has been Republican for decades — is difficult to explain away as coincidence.

A federal judge will now have to decide whether to issue a stay before votes are counted. That decision could come within days.

Elsewhere in the electoral picture, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved nineteen House races toward Democrats on Thursday and formally predicted a Democratic majority in the next Congress. Nineteen races in a single update is the kind of shift that campaigns notice immediately. The reasons cited include fundraising gaps, a modestly favorable national environment for Democrats in polling, and a string of Republican incumbents facing local credibility problems.

A Democratic House would mean new committee chairmanships, new subpoena power, and a very different negotiating posture on any legislation the White House wants passed.

On the international front, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer took the unusual step of raising Ukraine's access to SpaceX's Starlink network directly with President Trump. Starlink is not a minor logistical concern for Ukraine — it is the backbone of battlefield communications for a country fighting a ground war. European allies have grown increasingly anxious about whether decisions made in Silicon Valley or the West Wing could affect the satellite coverage a sovereign nation depends on for its military operations. No US commitment followed the conversation, at least not publicly.

Back home, two former FBI officials were charged Thursday with making false statements to Congress about the Hunter Biden laptop investigation. The charges allege they misled lawmakers about when the bureau authenticated the laptop's contents and how that information flowed through the chain of command. Both men deny wrongdoing. The investigation has been politically charged since before the 2020 election; what Thursday's charges add is the specific allegation that individuals made false statements under oath — a criminal matter, not just a policy dispute.

In Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy is defending a campaign ad that uses comments from the estranged mother of former state health director Amy Acton. The ad is drawing attention mostly for how personal it is — targeting a private family rift rather than a public record. Political professionals are divided on whether this kind of advertising helps or ultimately alienates the persuadable voters a candidate in a competitive governor's race actually needs.

And in Washington, the administration's reported plans to open portions of the National Mall — land set aside for public use since the nineteenth century — to commercial development are drawing pushback from preservationists and legal analysts alike. Congressional approval would be required, and the historical and legal obstacles are significant.

In Mississippi, a police officer in Senatobia has resigned after shooting and killing a one-year-old boy. The state and local investigations are ongoing. Very little has been confirmed officially beyond the officer's departure, and this story is likely to develop significantly in coming days.

Finally, in Grants Pass, Oregon, a father spoke publicly for the first time about the day he heard gunshots at his son's school and walked toward them. "I have to go in," he said. He shot and killed the gunman. He is now living with everything that follows that decision — legally, psychologically, and publicly.

It is the quietest story of the day and possibly the one that stays with you longest.

The hosts of AVONEWS — Daily News work through all of this — what we know, what we don't, and what it means — on today's episode.