Nevada Republicans Lose Legal Fight Over Mail Ballots

On Wednesday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by national and Nevada state Republicans that aimed to bar the state from counting mail ballots received up to four days after Election Day.

The case, brought by the Republican National Committee (RNC), the Nevada Republican Party, and former President Donald Trump’s campaign, alleged that Nevada’s electoral law violates federal law and gives Democrats an unfair advantage.

In the order filed Wednesday, the court stated, “Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the Nevada mail ballot receipt deadline and dismisses this case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.”

Nevada’s current electoral law, passed by Democrats in 2021, allows election officials to tally ballots received by 5 p.m. on November 9, as long as they are postmarked by November 5, Election Day. If the envelopes are not clearly postmarked, they must be received by 5 p.m. three days after the election.

The judge wrote, “The causal link between counting mail ballots received after Election Day in Nevada and Organizational Plaintiffs’ alleged electoral injuries is too speculative to support standing.”

Newsweek reached out to the Nevada Secretary of State, Republican National Committee, Nevada Republican Party, and Trump’s campaign for comment via email on Wednesday night.

The Republican-backed case argued that Democrats are more likely to vote by mail and to vote later, making them more likely to cast mail ballots received after Election Day.

“Even if the first two points have been adequately pled—which is not altogether clear—it does not necessarily follow that mail ballots arriving after Election Day will skew Democratic,” the judge wrote, adding, “And even if later-arriving mail ballots have favored Democrats past elections, it is far from guaranteed that Nevada voters will behave similarly this November.”

In a statement to the Associated Press (AP), Claire Zunk, the RNC’s Election Integrity spokesperson, maintained that the post-Election Day mail ballot deadline still breaks federal law and that “a liberal judge unjustifiably dismissed our case.”

“We are committed to protecting the ballot, and we will pursue further legal action in this case,” Zunk added.

The legal move comes just under four months before Election Day in a key swing state that President Joe Biden narrowly won by 33,500 votes in 2020 against former President Donald Trump. The state carries 6 Electoral College votes.

Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump in Nevada, according to a YouGov/The Times/SAY poll of 800 registered voters in the state. The poll, which was conducted between July 4 and July 12, found Trump leading by 4 percentage points, 46 percent to 42 percent. The survey has a margin of error of 4.7 percent, which places Biden in a neck-and-neck tie in the state.

Biden has been in the state since Monday, speaking at the NAACP annual conference yesterday. He was scheduled to address the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, UnidosUS, this afternoon before testing positive for COVID-19 and self-isolating.