Nevada Supreme Court Rules on Counting Late Mail-In Ballots

The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled against a Republican-led challenge, deciding that mail-in ballots arriving up to three days after election day will still be counted.

According to The Hill, a majority on the state’s highest court found that Nevada’s law, which allows for counting mail-in ballots even when the “postmark cannot be determined,” extends to ballots that are either missing a postmark or have an unreadable one.

This decision reaffirms an earlier court ruling, allowing ballots received within three days of the November 5 election to be included in the count.

Republicans argued that this law should cover only ballots with illegible postmarks, marking the ruling as a setback for their stance.

"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," the Nevada majority opinion stated, as reported by The Hill.

The court further reasoned, "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."

Upholding the district court’s decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Republican plaintiffs lacked standing, noting they did not provide sufficient evidence to support claims of potential voter fraud or inadequacies in existing security measures.

Additionally, the court rejected arguments suggesting that mail-in voting inherently benefits one political party over another.

Five justices signed the majority opinion, with two concurring. One wrote separately, pointing out that the appellants lacked adequate evidence, while another noted, “it is not in the public interest to change the rules governing this election this close to election day.”

In response, the Republican National Committee warned of potential election integrity risks following the decision.

"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," RNC Spokesperson Claire Zunk commented. "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."

With Nevada being one of the key battleground states that could heavily impact the upcoming election, Republican concerns are high. Current polls indicate that former President Donald Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris in the state, positioning him as a potential first GOP candidate to win there in decades.

Political analyst Nate Silver’s forecast suggests Trump could claim all key swing states in the 2024 election, with Silver’s analysis indicating a 24.4% likelihood of Trump winning all seven swing states. The forecast also finds that Harris has a 15.6% chance of sweeping the battleground states.

Silver’s projections further show that Harris could win if she captures every swing state except Arizona and Georgia, where Trump currently leads.

FiveThirtyEight’s latest data shows a shift toward Trump, giving him a 51% chance of winning the election, compared to Harris’s 49%.

RealClearPolitics similarly forecasts a Trump victory across four swing states, which would bring him 312 Electoral College votes, leaving Harris with 227.