Nevada Supreme Court rejects GOP mail ballot challenge

Nevada’s Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision Monday allowing mail ballots to be counted if they arrive without a postmark up to three days after the Nov. 5 election.

A majority of the high court ruled the state law requiring mail-in ballots to be counted even if the postmark “cannot be determined” applied to ballots without any postmark, as well as ballots whose postmarks are illegible.

The decision served as a blow to Republicans, who argued the law should just apply to ballots whose postmarks are illegible.

“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.

“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 decision that the GOP lacked standing, saying the plaintiffs did not provide sufficient evidence that the mail ballots would be subject to voter fraud or that the security measures in place were inadequate to address concerns.

The high court also rejected the argument that the mail ballots have a partisan lean that favors Democrats.

Five justices joined the majority order. Two justices concurred in the result, with one writing separately that appellants failed to provide sufficient evidence and the other writing 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 argued the ruling could affect 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 key battleground states that could play a consequential role in determining the outcome of the election next week.

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling average in Nevada, Trump has a narrow 0.9 percentage point lead over Vice President Harris, with 48.1 percent support to her 47.2 percent.

Updated at 5:37 p.m. EST.