A federal judge in Nevada on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed in May by the Republican National Committee that sought to prevent the state from counting mail ballots received after Election Day.
State law passed by Democrats three years ago allows mail ballots to be counted as long as they're received up to four days after Election Day and the envelopes are postmarked before the end of the day. This year, Election Day is Nov. 5, meaning ballots postmarked on or before that date must be accepted and counted if they are received by election offices by 5 p.m. on Nov. 9.
The lawsuit argued that the practice violates federal law and as a result “valid, timely ballots are dilated by untimely, invalid ballots.” They asked the court to block the counting of mail ballots received after Election Day.
The lawsuit was filed by Trump’s reelection campaign, the Republican National Committee, the Nevada Republican Party and Nevada voter Donald Szymanski. Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, Clark County Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo, and Washoe County Registrar of Voters Cari-Ann Burgess were named as defendants, as are the county clerks for Clark and Washoe.
Read also: Trump campaign sues Nevada, alleges counting of non-postmarked mail ballots
Nevada Democrats blasted the lawsuit as baseless, with Nevada Democratic Party Executive Director Hilary Barrett saying at the time the lawsuit was “yet another tactic to undermine democracy and disenfranchise thousands of Nevada voters by limiting when ballots can be accepted — even when postmarked by Election Day.”
Court documents obtained by Democracy Docket showed there were three motions to dismiss the lawsuit for a lack of Article III standing and for failure to state a claim. The state's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also submitted a motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief advising the Court on the merits of Plaintiffs’ claims.
The court on Wednesday found that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge mail ballot receipt deadline and dismissed the case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
The court granted the motions to dismiss, saying the Republicans "failed to demonstrate that the Court has standing to exercise jurisdiction over this case."
"It is further ordered that the DNC’s motion to dismiss ... and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada’s motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief ... are denied as moot because the Court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction to resolve them."
Democracy Docket's Marc E. Elias said on social media it was "another loss for the vote suppressing GOP."
