He's in a New York prison. Yet a judge let him stay on a U.S. House ballot — in Alaska

KETCHIKAN, Alaska — A fringe candidate who's never been to Alaska and is currently in federal prison in New York is set to appear on the general election ballot for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, following a judge’s ruling.

The Alaska Democratic Party says it plans to appeal the decision to the state’s high court.

The candidate, Eric Hafner, is running as a Democrat in an effort to unseat Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola. In Alaska’s election system, four congressional candidates, regardless of party, appear on a general election ballot together, after advancing in a nonpartisan primary.

The race, which the Cook Political Report sees as a toss-up race, essentially between Peltola and Republican Nick Begich, could help determine who controls the U.S. House next year.

From 0.4% of the primary vote to the general election ballot

Hafner finished a distant sixth place in the state’s August primary, with just 0.4% of the vote (467 votes). But two Republican candidates who received more votes dropped out of the race, landing Hafner on the general election ballot.

The Alaska Democratic Party then sued the state’s Division of Elections last week, seeking to remove Hafner.

In their lawsuit, Democrats’ argument was two-prong.

They said Alaska law dictates that if a candidate drops out of the top four, then the fifth-place finisher would take their place. They argued Hafner making it onto the ballot as a sixth-place candidate was unprecedented.

Their second argument was that Hafner is ineligible to run for the seat because he doesn’t meet the U.S. Constitution’s candidate residency requirements. The Constitution states that a candidate for U.S. House in a certain state must be “an inhabitant of that State” on Election Day.

The Alaska