Nevada Supreme Court Affirms Mail-In Ballot Law

Ballots that arrive by mail can be counted up to three days after Election Day, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled on Oct. 28.

The state’s top court turned away a challenge to state law that says ballots that arrive without clear postmarks, provided they’re received no later than 5 p.m. on the third day after the election, shall be counted as having been postmarked on or before Election Day.

The decision was conveyed in a one-sentence order posted on the court’s docket. A written opinion explaining the decision has not yet been made available.

Nevada officials have interpreted the law as enabling the counting of ballots without any postmarks.

“A mail ballot that has no visible postmark should be interpreted to have an indeterminate postmark, and therefore should be accepted if it has been received by the clerk by mail not later than 5 p.m. on the third day following the election,” the Nevada secretary of state’s office said in guidance to county clerks earlier this year.

Republicans said the fact that the law states ballots must be “postmarked” to be counted and the exception is for ballots for which “the date of the postmark cannot be determined” means postmarks are still required.

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“That caveat expressly requires the existence of ’the postmark’ in order to apply,” they told the Nevada Supreme Court in an appeal.

In an order in August, Nevada District Court Judge James Russell had ruled that the provision lets mail ballots without postmarks be counted and that Republicans had failed to show it was “in the public’s interest to disenfranchise voters.”

This is a developing story that will be updated.