I was once accused of engaging in deliberate candidate confusion. Arlington, Massachusetts is the largest municipality in the U.S. that still employs the ancient town meeting government structure. When I graduated from law school, I registered to run for the town Board of Selectmen, which sort of serves as the town equivalent to the U.S. Senate with the town meeting members playing the House of Representatives. People freaked out. My father was well-known and respected in Arlington, and since our names were the same, both of us were accused of deliberately trying to mislead voters.

But Democrats really did try to cheat this way in Alaska. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) is trying to hold off a challenge by former Rep. Mary Peltola, the Democrat trying to flip a critical GOP seat as her party is determined to take over the U.S. Senate in November despite being repeatedly revealed as the most cynical, ruthless and untrustworthy major U.S. party in history. To aid the cause, Democratic Party operatives recruited a retired teacher also named Dan Sullivan and got him on the ballot to split the Republican vote so Pelyola could prevail.