Federal Court Rejects RNC and Trump Campaign’s Challenge to Nevada Ballot Receipt Deadline
A federal court swiftly tossed out a lawsuit from the Republican National Committee (RNC), Nevada Republican Party and the Trump campaign alleging that Nevada’s post-election ballot receipt deadline violates federal law and unconstitutionally dilutes Republican votes.
In today’s ruling granting requests from state officials and nonprofit organizations to dismiss the case, Judge Miranda Mai Du held that the GOP plaintiffs lacked standing.
Under Nevada law, mail-in ballots received up to four business days after Election Day are counted. Additionally, the state presumes that ballots received up to three days after Election Day were postmarked on Election Day.
Despite the ballot receipt deadline applying to everyone in the state, Republicans argued that the deadline violates their right to vote because counting votes received after an election would have unfairly diluted votes cast on or before Election Day.
The Trump campaign, RNC and other right-wing groups have filed dozens of anti-democracy lawsuits so far this cycle.
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Republicans also used this case as a vehicle for advancing a more fringe theory that votes can only be cast on Election Day under the U.S. Constitution and to assert that mail-in ballots received after Election Day disproportionately benefit Democratic voters. The RNC and other anti-voting forces have pushed a similar argument in cases out of Illinois, Mississippi and North Dakota.
“The causal link between counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day in Nevada and Organizational Plaintiffs’ alleged electoral injuries is too speculative to support standing,” the order reads.
Du added the plaintiffs “have failed to establish that the Nevada mail ballot receipt deadline gives their Democratic opponents some ‘unfair advantage in the election process.’”
Today’s decision is a victory for voters as Nevada’s mail-in voting system will remain untouched by yet another right-wing attack. Republicans and the Trump campaign have zeroed in on Nevada as a target for anti-voting litigation as the 2024 presidential election rapidly approaches.
According to Democracy Docket’s database, there are currently seven democracy-related lawsuits ongoing in Nevada, five of which were filed by anti-voting parties.