By Mark Robison, Reno Gazette Journal, June 5, 2024
A swell of lawsuits against Nevada’s election process just got a little bigger as the Republican National Committee filed its third lawsuit so far this year.
The new complaint submitted this week in Carson City District Court names Washoe and Clark county officials as well as Nevada’s secretary of state.
It seeks to stop ballots without postmarks from being counted.
“Counting ballots received after Election Day without a postmark creates a concerning and potentially fraudulent impact on Nevada’s elections,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement.
“We are committed to ensuring the integrity of Nevada’s elections and inspiring voter confidence,” Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald said in the same statement. “Allowing ballots without postmarks to be illegally counted undermines both.”
Nevada law says such ballots can be counted legally.
“If a mail ballot is received by mail not later than 5 p.m. on the third day following the election and the date of the postmark cannot be determined,” Nevada Revised Statutes say, “the mail ballot shall be deemed to have been postmarked on or before the day of the election.”
The RNC lawsuit mentions this law but says that the U.S. Postal Service “routinely delivers mail inside of three days within Nevada” so “it is therefore possible, if not probable, that mail ballots deposited in the mail after election day could arrive at mail-ballot processing facilities within the three-day deadline.”
If this happens, the ballots would be illegal to count even though they arrived within the three-day window because they were mailed after Election Day.
“The results of a close election could be changed by the counting of ballots cast after election day,” the lawsuit says. “Dilution of honest votes, to any degree, by the counting of late-cast votes violates the right to vote and prevents the holding of a free and fair election.”
Counting mailed ballots without postmarks after Election Day would be detrimental to Republican candidates because Democratic voters are more likely to vote by mail, according to the lawsuit, which cites 2022 general election data showing 60 percent of Democrats voted by mail compared with 37 percent of Republicans.
Other pending Nevada election lawsuits
Election lawsuits ahead of November’s rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump show no signs of slowing.
The postmark lawsuit follows one filed by the RNC last month also related to mail-in ballots. It seeks to stop mailed ballots received after Election Day from being counted at all, regardless of the postmark.
An RNC lawsuit in March claims Nevada counties show too many registered voters.
Last week, the conservative Public Interest Legal Foundation filed suit to force Washoe County’s top election official to investigate its claims that inappropriate business addresses have been used by residents when registering to vote.
Washoe County conservative donor and activist Robert Beadles is involved in the appeal of two election lawsuits that had previously been tossed out by judges.
One seeks to block a new Nevada law protecting election workers from harassment. That one has been appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appealsafter being rejected twice in federal court.
And a second, where Beadles is representing himself, involves his desire to oust Washoe County officials for not adequately responding to his election grievances.
A Carson City District Court had ruled against Beadles and ordered him to pay attorney fees to the district attorney’s office. He appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, where a three-justice panel upheld the district court ruling last month. Beadles is now asking the full court to hear his case.
“Three Justices within this Court either ignored or mistakenly missed the very things I included within my appeal that would’ve overcome their reasons for affirming the lower court’s ruling,” he wrote in his 294-page submission filed May 28.
The Nevada Supreme Court has not yet given an indication what it will do regarding Beadles’ latest action.
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to [email protected] or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.