The Republican National Committee (RNC) is heading up a lawsuit challenging a Nevada law that permits mail-in ballots to be counted several days after the election — even if they lack a postmark.
The RNC, the Nevada Republican Party, and the Trump campaign — along with a registered Nevada voter — contend that the 2021 state statute contradicts federal election law, which designates the Tuesday after the first Monday of November as Election Day. The 2021 Nevada measure closely mirrors a temporary pandemic-related measure that first extended the mail-in ballot deadline in 2020.
The lawsuit, filed May 3, states that Congress “has established a uniform, national day to elect members of Congress and to appoint presidential electors” but that Nevada “contravenes those federal laws by counting mail ballots that are received up to four business days after Election Day … and by presuming that ballots received up to three days after Election Day ‘have been postmarked on or before the day of election.’”
“The result of Nevada’s violation of federal law is that timely, valid ballots are diluted by untimely, invalid ballots, which violates the rights of candidates, campaigns, and voters under federal law,” the suit alleges. “Dilution of honest votes, to any degree, by the casting of fraudulent or illegitimate votes violates the right to vote.”
The RNC contends that one reason it has standing to bring the claim is that the belated ballot deadline causes “competitive electoral harms.” Democrats are more inclined to use mail ballots
