A judge has dismissed the Donald Trump-backed lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska’s US Senate race if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses.

Trump said on 23 October that he had ordered the justice department to file the lawsuit in a move that voting rights experts called an “unprecedented intervention” by the federal government with control of Congress in the balance.

The justice department argued in its lawsuit, filed less than two weeks before election day, that there could be “voter confusion” over the presence of two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the November ballot, which Republicans fear could take away votes from the incumbent and influence the race’s outcome in favor of the Democratic nominee, Mary Peltola.

The justice department said it planned to appeal Sunday’s ruling: “Alaskan voters deserve a fair election, not to be misled in an attempt to rig outcomes,” a department spokesperson said in a statement.

Sullivan, in an interview with CNN on Sunday morning, said that he would…