Swing-state’s Supreme Court issues pivotal ruling on mail-in ballots sent without postmark

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Monday that mail-in ballots without a postmark can be received and counted until four days after the election, the latest in a series of legal setbacks the court has handed to the Republican Party.

The ruling upholds a lower court’s rejection of a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee seeking to challenge the legality of the post-election deadline for mail-in ballots received without a postmark.

Plaintiffs had challenged the state’s decision to allow non-postmarked ballots to be counted four days after the election, the standard it allows for postmarked ballots, which they argued was “unconstitutional.” 

Their injunction to reject the ballots was struck down by a lower court earlier this year.

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A “Vote Here” signs directs voters to a precinct during the presidential primary elections in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage / AFP) 

The Nevada high court affirmed the lower court decision in its majority decision Monday, noting that the RNC had failed to demonstrate evidence to support its claims that the non-postmarked ballots were vulnerable to election fraud or favored one political party over another. 

Judges also agreed with the lower court’s contention that the RNC lacked proper standing to sue, and that the case was “inherently speculative.”

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The Nevada Supreme Court building stands on May 2, 2018, in Carson City, Nevada.  (AP Photo/Scott Sonner, File)

“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 majority of justices wrote in their opinion.

It is unclear how many residents will be impacted by the decision.

A ballot box  (X  Vote box (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)

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But it comes as Democrats have sought to position themselves as the party that supports free and fair elections, seizing on Republican lawsuits as a means of disenfranchising voters.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the RNC for comment. 

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