By james art Monday, October 28, 2024 | 5:25 p.m
The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Monday that mail-in ballots with smudged, undeciphered or missing postage stamps can be counted up to three days after polls close on Election Day.
The state Supreme Court rejected a request by state and national Republicans, former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and voter Scott Johnston to block their recount. Among the GOP arguments was that mail-in voting unfairly favored Democratic voters.
The legal challenge came after Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, told county election officials in May that ballots without a visible postmark must be counted by 5 p.m. on the Friday after Election Day. This year it is November 8.
Aguilar said the decision “will allow Nevada election administration to continue without interruption, without the risk of disenfranchising voters through no fault of their own.” In a statement, he also praised election workers “who have committed additional resources to securely process mail more efficiently this cycle.”
Republican National Committee spokeswoman Claire Zunk said in a statement that the ruling “undermines the integrity of Nevada’s elections.”
The ruling upheld an August ruling by state District Court Judge James Todd Russell in Carson City and followed oral arguments before the seven-judge court on Oct. 8. It was unclear Monday whether the plaintiffs would ask the seven justices to reconsider.
Five justices acknowledged that state law covering vote counts was unclear about ballots that had a postmark or processing date that could not be determined. But the ruling said state lawmakers apparently intended to “expand Nevadans’ freedom to vote.” Two justices concurred but issued separate written opinions.
In 2020, Nevada became one of the few states with universal mail-in voting. All registered voters are mailed a ballot unless they opt out. Voters can vote in person early or on Election Day. Signed mail-in ballots with postage stamps are accepted and counted until 5 p.m. Saturday after the polls close, as required by law.
The court noted that the Republican National Committee argued that Democrats vote by mail more than GOP voters and that “a count of allegedly invalid mail-in ballots received after Election Day would benefit Democratic candidates.”
Nevada has nearly 2 million active registered voters, and Aguilar’s office said Monday that more than 643,000 mail-in, early and overseas votes had been cast. Of those, nearly 40% are registered Republicans, nearly 35% are Democrats, and about 25% are neither of those parties. Early voting ends on Friday.
The Supreme Court decision cited a federal judge’s finding in the Trump campaign’s challenge to the outcome of the 2020 Nevada election that allowing three days for unpostmarked mail to arrive at a polling station allows for “a presumption that the ballot was cast on time “.
The ruling noted that the plaintiffs identified only 24 ballots among more than 383,000 statewide ballots in Nevada’s June primary election as unpostmarked and attributed the postmark errors to “random postal service errors.” Two-thirds of ballots cast in Nevada’s primary election arrived by mail, according to secretary of state records.
The judges said the commission also failed to prove it had standing to seek a court order to block the ballot count or that it would suffer “irreparable harm” if the votes were counted.
Nevada is one of seven battleground states where the outcome of next week’s presidential election is expected to be very close, along with Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
It is one of eight states with what is commonly called a mail-in election, and one of 19 states that allows postmarked ballots to be counted after Election Day.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that Mississippi cannot count mail-in ballots that arrive shortly after Election Day, but the ruling is not expected to affect the Nov. 5 election. The ruling noted that federal courts have historically discouraged actions that change established procedures shortly before an election.
There are 13 active election-related lawsuits in Nevada, including the one decided Monday by the state Supreme Court.
In one, national and state Republicans have an appeal pending before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco over the July dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to bar the counting of all mail-in ballots received after Election Day.
On Monday, the US Postal Service issued a statement urging voters using mail-in ballots to send them by this Tuesday to be delivered by Election Day.