Alaska voters face a ballot with three candidates named Dan Sullivan this November, and the fact that name recognition could decide a U.S. Senate seat tells you everything about how little the system respects the people casting the votes.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is running for a third term. Former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola finished first in the open primary and leads him by 5.4 points in the latest tabulation. Also advancing: retired schoolteacher Dan J. Sullivan, who has no prior political experience and appears poised to make the general-election cut despite outstanding votes remaining.

The GOP calls him "Decoy Dan." Trump posted on social media on primary day: "ALASKA: Be careful. VOTE FOR THE REAL DAN SULLIVAN TODAY. The Dumocrats know how good he is and have put up an imposter of the same name." Republicans went to court to keep Dan J. Sullivan off the ballot, arguing his campaign was a Democratic-engineered sham. A lower court agreed, finding he wasn't mounting "an actual good-faith candidacy" and noted he waited until days before filing to register as a Republican. The Alaska Supreme Court put him back on.

Dan J. Sullivan, who appeared on the primary ballot with no party affiliation, denied running at anyone's behest. "This is my choice," he told the Associated Press in June. "I have every right to run." He admitted to the New York Times he voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in the last three elections but insisted he's a moderate Republican.

The Justice Department has reportedly secured grand jury subpoenas to investigate the retired teacher, according to the New York Post.

Enter Dan A. Sullivan, the 75-year-old former Anchorage mayor, who decided to make things even more absurd. "As the OG Dan Sullivan, I urge Alaskans to vote for [Senator] Daniel S Sullivan," he posted on Facebook. "He's been great for Alaska." The endorsement went viral days later after being highlighted by VoteHub.

The Guardian framed the race as a curiosity — multiple "absurd elements" to the campaign. The Post leaned harder, calling it "bonkers" and spotlighting the "Decoy Dan" nickname and the DOJ probe. What neither outlet grapples with is the structural problem: Alaska's ranked-choice voting system, where no candidate needs to hit 50% in the first round and second-choice votes get redistributed, makes name confusion a genuine electoral strategy, not just a joke.

When the ballot is designed so that a retired teacher with no platform can siphon votes from an incumbent simply by sharing his name, the system isn't protecting voters. It's gaming them. Both parties know it. One of them might be exploiting it. And Alaska's Supreme Court and the DOJ are now both in the mix — meaning the people who actually have to live with the result will be the last ones consulted.

The open question: if Dan J. Sullivan draws enough votes to hand Peltola the seat, will anyone be able to prove it was by design — or will the confusion itself be enough?