Fed judge tosses GOP challenge to Nevada’s mail-ballot counting rules: They ‘lack standing’

LAS VEGAS — Republicans have vowed to continue pressing legal claims against Nevada’s 2021 law allowing the inclusion of mail-in ballots received up to four days after Election Day.

Federal District Court Chief Judge Miranda Du said plaintiffs including the Republican National Committee, the state GOP, the 2024 Trump campaign and Nevada voter Donald Szymanski, a registered Republican, “lack standing to challenge the Nevada mail ballot receipt deadline.”

The plaintiffs had sued Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, Washoe County Registrar of Voters Cari-Ann Burgess, Washoe County Clerk Jan Galassini and Lorena Portillo and Lynn Marie Goya, respectively Clark County’s voter registrar and county clerk. The two counties are the state’s most populous.

In a 15-page ruling, Du, a 2011 Obama appointee to the federal bench, said none of the plaintiff’s claims demonstrates they “have suffered, or will likely suffer, an injury” if the ballot-counting measure is allowed to stand. The judge said “it does not necessarily follow that mail ballots arriving after Election Day will skew Democratic. And even if later-arriving mail ballots have favored Democrats past elections, it is far from guaranteed that Nevada voters will behave similarly this November.”

She went on, “The Nevada mail ballot receipt deadline does not have an ‘individual and personal’ effect on the voting power of Republican voters; it neither undermines their access to the polls nor disproportionately diminishes the weight of their votes relative to other Nevada voters.” 

Clark and Washoe counties tallied 45,596 mail-in ballots in 2022 voting, the secretary of state’s office reported, with 89% of those arriving the day after Election Day.

It’s unknown how those ballots broke down along party lines, but Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated GOP challenger Adam Laxalt by 8,000 votes that year.

Republicans believe Nevada, which hasn’t gone for a GOP presidential candidate since 2004, could end up in former President Donald Trump’s column this year and have stepped up voter-integrity efforts, with party chair Michael Whatley saying the Silver State is “absolutely critical” in regaining the White House.

A GOP spokeswoman, Claire Zunk, told Courthouse News the party will appeal.

“Our case fights a Nevada law that shouldn’t be on the books; it breaks federal law and allows mail ballots to be counted after Election Day,” Zunk said. “Rather than letting us fight this in court, a liberal judge unjustifiably dismissed our case. Political parties must be allowed to fight invalid election laws that threaten the integrity of our elections. We are committed to protecting the ballot and we will pursue further legal action in this case.”

The Republicans are not alone in challenging voter issues in the Silver State. Last month, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, joined by two Nevada voters, sued Clark County’s Portillo over rolls showing voters listing a casino, several industrial parks and a topless club as their residential addresses.

That lawsuit, along with a similar one in Washoe County, is pending.