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The Nevada Supreme Court rejected a challenge by Republicans and ruled that mail-in ballots received up to three days after election day could still be counted.
The Hill reported that a majority on the state high court ruled that the state law requiring mail-in ballots to be counted, even if the postmark “cannot be determined,” applies to ballots that have no postmark as well as those with illegible postmarks.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that said ballots received three days after the Nov. 5 election day could still be counted.
The decision dealt a setback to Republicans, who argued that the law should only apply to ballots with illegible postmarks.
“If a voter properly and timely casts their vote by mailing their ballot before or on the day of the election, and through a post office omission the ballot is not postmarked, it would go against public policy to discount that properly cast vote,” Nevada’s majority opinion read, according to The Hill.
“Indeed, there is no principled distinction between mail ballots where the postmark is ‘illegible’ or ‘smudged’ and those with no postmark — in each instance, the date the mail ballot was received by the post office cannot be determined,” the court filing continued.
The high court upheld the district court’s decision that the GOP lacked standing, stating that the plaintiffs did not present sufficient evidence to demonstrate that mail ballots would be subject to voter fraud or that the existing security measures were inadequate to address those concerns.
Additionally, the high court dismissed the argument that mail ballots have a partisan bias favoring Democrats.
Five justices joined the majority order, while two justices concurred with the outcome. One of those justices wrote separately, stating that the appellants did not provide sufficient evidence. Another justice wrote that “it is not in the public interest to change the rules governing this election this close to election day.”
In a statement to The Hill, the Republican National Committee contended that the ruling could impact election integrity.
“Requiring ballots to be postmarked on or before election day is a critical election integrity safeguard that ensures ballots mailed after election day are not counted,” said RNC Spokesperson Claire Zunk. “It is also a requirement of Nevada law. By allowing Nevada officials to ignore the law’s postmark requirement, the state’s highest court has undermined the integrity of Nevada’s elections.”
Nevada is one of the seven critical battleground states that could significantly influence the outcome of the election next week, so Republicans are right to be concerned. The most recent polling data indicate that former President Donald Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris in the state, meaning he could become the first GOP candidate in decades to win there.
Meanwhile, pollster Nate Silver’s most recent forecast is that Trump could win all of the important split states in the 2024 election. Silver’s research shows that Trump has a 24.4% chance of winning all seven swing states in November. This is the most likely outcome. The forecast also says that Harris has a 15.6% chance of winning all the battleground states.
It also shows that Harris would win the race if she won all the swing states except Arizona and Georgia, where Trump is currently ahead.
FiveThirtyEight’s prediction has also changed in Trump’s favor. It now says that Trump has a 51% chance of winning the election, while Harris only has a 49% chance.
At the same time, RealClearPolitics predicts that Trump will win all four swing states, giving him 312 Electoral College votes to Harris’s 227.
Famed polling guru Nate Silver’s ‘gut says Donald Trump’ will win 2024 presidential election pic.twitter.com/ZjofA0EAVM
— Martin Walsh (@MWalshUS) October 24, 2024
