The Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging the Republican National Committee’s efforts to tank mail-in voting legislation in Nevada.
In July, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the RNC, President Donald Trump, and Nevada Republicans attempting to bar the state from counting mail-in ballots received after the election. Current Nevada election law allows for the state to count ballots that were received up to four days after the election, so long as they were postmarked by Election Day. The RNC filed a notice of appeal in August of last year.
In a statement provided to Rolling Stone, the DNC argued that Republican attempts to appeal the decision and continue attacking Nevada voting rights “is not just about the receipt deadline but an effort to lay the legal groundwork to challenge all early and mail voting – a grave threat to the rights of working people and to military voters and their families.”
Recently elected DNC Chair Ken Martin wrote in a statement: “Today, we filed an opposition brief in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals asking the Court to shut down Republicans’ bogus case. Voting by mail and voting early is safe, secure, and empowers even more eligible voters to participate in our elections. That is a good thing for our democracy. The DNC will fight like hell for the rights of Nevadans and every other citizen to make sure their voices are heard and their votes are counted.”
In its request, the DNC is asking the Ninth Circuit Court to dismiss the RNC appeals on several grounds, including a lack of standing and the reality that Nevada’s mail-in voting system is “consistent with longstanding election-administration practice” followed by more than a dozen states that allow mail-in ballots received after the election to be counted so long as they comply with postmarking deadlines.
Since the 2020 election — when millions of Americans subject to Covid-19 restrictions chose to vote by mail, and which Trump lost — Trump and Republicans have harbored a grudge against the longstanding practice. The president and his allies have filed dozens of legal challenges opposing the availability of early and absentee voting — calling them a tool of fraud —- but have struggled to convince their own voters to abandon it. Ahead of the 2024 election, Trump insisted that while he planned to implement more stringent ballot restrictions as president, widespread mail-in voting by his Republican supporters was necessary in order to win the White House.
In their original arguments before the court, the RNC claimed that allowing post-Election Day mail in ballots to be counted posed an undue burden on Republican candidates in Nevada. “Post-election receipt of ballots increases and prolongs electoral competition for mail ballots between Plaintiffs and their political rivals past election day. It requires the Plaintiffs to run mail-ballot chase programs through election day, which diverts resources from their in-person turnout efforts, election-integrity programs, and post-election activities,” the RNC argued.
The DNC is now countering that “embracing Republicans’ radical theory would create a seismic shift in election administration, changing the way tens of millions of Americans vote in most states. There is no reason to disrupt this long-settled practice.”
DNC Vice Chair Artie Blanco, a longtime Nevada resident, added in a statement that “the RNC knows damn well that these votes were cast legally and safely but they still want to throw them out because they are attempting a nationwide play to end early and mail voting once and for all.”
Read the DNC’s full lawsuit:
