A Carson City judge denied a motion by former President Donald Trump’s campaign and state Republicans to stop counting mail ballots that lack a clear postmark and are received three days after Election Day.
Carson City District Court Judge James Russell denied the request for a preliminary injunction Friday, a spokesperson for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office confirmed to The Nevada Independent.
The decision marks the third legal defeat for the Republican National Committee (RNC), Nevada Republican Party and Trump campaign in their efforts to challenge Nevada election laws before the 2024 election. The attorney general’s office did not offer any other details about the ruling.
The suit, which challenges election procedures in Nevada, has not yet been dismissed. It hinges on April testimony from Mark Wlaschin, the deputy secretary of state for elections, who said during a public meeting that the office accepts and counts ballots received in the mail as many as three days after Election Day, even if it does not have a clear postmark.
The Nevada GOP and the RNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the decision or whether they plan to appeal.
Wlaschin’s testimony and the lawsuit, however, did not indicate that this is an active practice in elections.
State law requires election officials to count all mail ballots postmarked by Election Day up to four business days afterwards. The law also allows officials to count mail ballots postmarked with a date that “cannot be determined” and received within the three days following Election Day. The suit alleged that the state is too broadly interpreting the law by also counting received mail ballots that are not postmarked at all.
A May memo the secretary of state’s office sent to local election officials notes that mail ballots received with “no visible postmark should be interpreted to have an indeterminate postmark,” and that those ballots can be counted as valid if received within three days of Election Day.
The memo notes that it will seek to codify the guidance as a state regulation after the election cycle.
Other lawsuits from the Trump campaign and RNC filed in Nevada were dismissed earlier this year, including an attempt to block the Nevada law that allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted up to four days afterwards, and a separate federal lawsuit alleging errors in the state’s voter roll maintenance.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
