The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that election officials can count mail ballots with no postmark received as many as three days after Election Day.
In a decision Monday, five of the high court’s seven justices disagreed with the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) interpretation of the law at the center of the lawsuit and determined it would not be in the public interest to change election procedures this late in the cycle. Justices Douglas Herndon and Kristina Pickering agreed with the ruling but disagreed with the majority’s interpretation of the law in question.
The ruling upholds a Carson City judge’s denial of the Republicans’ request in August to stop the counting of these ballots. It is the latest defeat in the barrage of lawsuits filed by state and local Republicans related to Nevada’s mail ballot laws and voter roll maintenance, none of which have resulted in GOP victories, though one is pending a ruling and the others are in various stages of appeal.
In a statement Monday, an RNC spokesperson accused the court of ignoring the postmark requirement in state law and said it “has undermined the integrity of Nevada’s elections.”