Nevada Supreme Court Rules Ballots Received After Election Day Without Postmarks Can Be Counted

Election workers in Nevada will be able to count absentee ballots that arrive up to three days after Election Day without postmarks.Nevada is one of nearly two dozen states that let officials count postmarked mail-in ballots received after Election Day. On Monday, the Nevada Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that let stand a portion of a 2021 law that increased the number of late-arriving votes that can be counted. Under the law, ballots received up to three days after Election Day can be counted if the “date of the postmark cannot be determined.”President Trump’s campaign and the Republicans filed a lawsuit in May to block the rule, claiming that accepting ballots without postmarks would lead to fraud.In August, a Carson City District Court judge, James Russell, upheld the provision, saying, “The public interest is served by ensuring that the maximum number of legitimate voters are counted.”Judge Russell insisted it would “disenfranchise voters” to decline to count mail-in ballots that were not postmarked.During oral arguments on October 8, the state Supreme Court asked why a ballot received after Election Day should be rejected because it lacks a clear postmark. A lawyer from a voting rights organization involved in the case argued that the lack of a postmark could be the result of a mistake by the post office, not a voter, and that the number of ballots missing postmarks would be negligible.The judges said in their ruling that Republicans did not provide sufficient evidence that ballots without postmarks could pose a risk of fraud. The Republican Party of Nevada did not respond to a request for comment on the Nevada Supreme Court’s ruling.The decision in Nevada comes after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to strike down Mississippi’s law allowing ballots received up to five days after Election Day to be counted.A panel of three judges found ballots received after Election Day should not be counted as it noted, “Congress statutorily designated a singular ‘day for the election’ of members of Congress and the appointment of presidential electors…Text, precedent, and historical practice confirm this ‘day for the election’ is the day by which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials.”While the judges said the states should not be counting votes that come in after the election, it declined to strike down Mississippi’s law and left it up to lower courts to decide. Although the ruling will not impact how votes are counted in the upcoming election, Republicans viewed it as a win. The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Whatley, celebrated the decision, saying, “This is a major win for election integrity, upholding the law and commonsense ballot safeguards.”Republicans are optimistic the case could end up before the Supreme Court. The court could find that counting ballots received after Election Day is unconstitutional and end a practice used in roughly 20 states.

Nevada Supreme Court Rules Ballots Received After Election Day Without Postmarks Can Be Counted

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