Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into whether Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign illegally tampered with the election by recruiting a candidate with the same name to draw votes from the state’s Republican incumbent.

“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy, a Republican, wrote on X late Wednesday. “Anyone or any organization found to have broken the law must be held accountable.”

The announcement came after The New York Times reported how the Peltola campaign helped recruit a retiree named Dan J. Sullivan to run against U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.

Dunleavy cited the news article as a reason for launching the criminal probe.

"Today’s New York Times reporting reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates—including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator—to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes," he wrote. 

"The Alaska Division of Elections investigated these very concerns in June of this year. The new reporting substantially supports the Division’s findings," he added. "I am therefore directing the Department of Public Safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted."

Hours earlier, Trump called for Peltola to be removed from the ballot and prosecuted.

"It was just determined that the Dumocrats in Alaska, despite their sworn statements to the contrary, put a man named Dan Sullivan on the Ballot in order to confuse the Public with respect to Highly Esteemed Senator Dan Sullivan," he wrote on Truth Social. "This is Voter Fraud at the Highest Level, and the Dumocrat Candidate, who was involved in the scheme, Mary Peltola, should be removed from the Ballot and prosecuted."