JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A top Alaska election official has ruled that a U.S. Senate candidate with the same name and party affiliation as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan is ineligible to appear on the state's primary ballot in August.

Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher, in a letter sent Monday to the challenger Sullivan, said she concluded that his declaration of candidacy "was not filed in order to declare an actual good-faith candidacy for the office of United States Senator, but was instead filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot's fairness or neutrality."

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The challenger can appeal the ruling, she said.

A message seeking comment from Sullivan, the challenger, was not immediately returned. In a social media post Sunday, he said he "met the qualification and I entered this race because I am unhappy with the 12 year record of the current Senator and I feel we need a change. It's that simple."

READ MORE: The other Dan Sullivan in Alaska's Senate race says candidacy is not a sham