Ballot-stacking:
Ballot-stacking is a political campaign tactic in which a party or candidate deliberately recruits additional candidates to run in an election, often with the goal of drawing votes away from an opponent. [Political Dictionary]
Not a particularly evocative name, but the entry does give a historical entry of 1946 involving John F. Kennedy. Noted in “Eyeing Alaska, Trump and Republicans pick a fight over campaign mischief they can’t win,” Steve Benen, MS NOW:
There’s a qualitative difference between genuine electoral scandals and routine campaign mischief. Asking an official who oversees a state elections system to “find” 11,780 votes that don’t exist is disgraceful on a historic scale, but looking for candidates with names similar to an opponent is a tactic with a deep American pedigree. It’s common enough to have earned a familiar name: ballot-stacking.
Benen cites similar tactics, contemporary with the Alaska contretemps.
