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Nevada Republicans lose legal fight over mail ballots

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Nevada Republicans lose legal fight over mail ballots


On Wednesday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by national and Nevada state Republicans that aimed to bar the state from counting mail ballots received up to four days after Election Day.

The case, brought by the Republican National Committee (RNC), the Nevada Republican Party, and former President Donald Trump’s campaign, alleged that Nevada’s electoral law violates federal law and gives Democrats an unfair advantage.

In the order filed Wednesday, the court stated, “Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the Nevada mail ballot receipt deadline and dismisses this case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.”

Nevada’s current electoral law, passed by Democrats in 2021, allows election officials to tally ballots received by 5 p.m. on November 9, as long as they are postmarked by November 5, Election Day. If the envelopes are not clearly postmarked, they must be received by 5 p.m. three days after the election.

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The judge wrote, “The causal link between counting mail ballots received after Election Day in Nevada and Organizational Plaintiffs’ alleged electoral injuries is too speculative to support standing.”

Newsweek reached out to the Nevada Secretary of State, Republican National Committee, Nevada Republican Party, and Trump’s campaign for comment via email on Wednesday night.

The Republican-backed case argued that Democrats are more likely to vote by mail and to vote later, making them more likely to cast mail ballots received after Election Day.

“Even if the first two points have been adequately pled—which is not altogether clear—it does not necessarily follow that mail ballots arriving after Election Day will skew Democratic,” the judge wrote, adding, “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.”

In a statement to the Associated Press (AP), Claire Zunk, the RNC’s Election Integrity spokesperson, maintained that the post-Election Day mail ballot deadline still breaks federal law and that “a liberal judge unjustifiably dismissed our case.”

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“We are committed to protecting the ballot, and we will pursue further legal action in this case,” Zunk added.

The legal move comes just under four months before Election Day in a key swing state that President Joe Biden narrowly won by 33,500 votes in 2020 against former President Donald Trump. The state carries 6 Electoral College votes.

Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump in Nevada, according to a YouGov/The Times/SAY poll of 800 registered voters in the state. The poll, which was conducted between July 4 and July 12, found Trump leading by 4 percentage points, 46 percent to 42 percent. The survey has a margin of error of 4.7 percent, which places Biden in a neck-and-neck tie in the state.

Biden has been in the state since Monday, speaking at the NAACP annual conference yesterday. He was scheduled to address the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, UnidosUS, this afternoon before testing positive for COVID-19 and self-isolating.

A pair of ballot drop boxes for voted mail ballots are displayed in a Clark County vote center on Election Day during the Nevada 2024 presidential primary election in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 6,…


PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
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IN RESPONSE: Cortez Masto lands bill would keep the proceeds in Nevada

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IN RESPONSE: Cortez Masto lands bill would keep the proceeds in Nevada


A recent Review-Journal letter to the editor mischaracterized Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands bill. As the former executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, so I wanted to set the record straight.

Sen. Cortez Masto has been working on this bill for years in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups like the NCL and local area tribes. It’s true that the Clark County lands bill would open 25,000 acres to help Las Vegas grow responsibly, while setting aside 2 million acres for conservation. It would also help create more affordable housing throughout the valley while ensuring our treasured public spaces can be preserved for generations to come.

What is not correct is that the money from these land sales would go to the federal government’s coffers. In fact, the opposite is true.

The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is a landmark bill that identified specific public land for future sale and created a special account ensuring all land sale revenues would come back to Nevada. In accordance with that law 5 percent of revenue from land transfers goes to the state of Nevada for general education purposes, 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for needed water infrastructure and 85 percent supports conservation and environmental mitigation projects in Southern Nevada. This legislation has provided billions to Clark County and will continue to benefit generations of Southern Nevadans. Sen. Cortez Masto’s lands bill builds upon the act’s success.

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So here’s the good news: All of the money generated from land made available for sale under Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would be sent to the special account created by the 1998 law. Rather than going to an unaccountable federal government, the proceeds would continue to help kids in Vegas get a better education, bolster outdoor recreation and modernize Southern Nevada’s infrastructure.

I know how important it is that money generated from the sale of public land in Nevada stay in the hands of Nevadans, and so does the senator. That’s why she opposed a Republican effort last year to sell off 200,000 acres of land in Clark County and other areas of the country that would have sent those dollars directly to Washington.

Public land management in Nevada should benefit Nevadans. We should protect sacred cultural sites and beloved recreation spaces, responsibly transfer land for affordable housing when needed and ensure our state has the resources it needs to grow sustainably. I will continue working with Sen. Cortez Masto to advocate for legislation, such as the Clark County lands bill, that puts the needs of Nevadans first.

Paul Selberg writes from Las Vegas.

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Las Vegas High beats Coronado in 5A baseball — PHOTOS

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Las Vegas High beats Coronado in 5A baseball — PHOTOS