Inset: Donald Trump, former President and Republican presidential candidate, speaks at a rally in Las Vegas on February 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)/Background: A person working in the election gets ready mail-in votes at the Clark County Election Department on Nov. 8, 2022, in Las Vegas. AP Photo/John Locher.
The Trump 2024 presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee have submitted a lawsuit — the 83rd lawsuit by the RNC in the last six months — to halt the legal counting of ballots up to four days after Election Day. Nevada This is even if the ballots have the appropriate postmarking.
Since 2021, the state law has allowed the acceptance of all ballots received up to four days after Election Day, as long as the envelopes are postmarked by the end of that business day.
The An 18-page lawsuit is requesting declaratory and injunctive relief and was initially reported by the Associated Press. It urges Cari-Ann Burgess, Jan Galassini, Lorena Portillo, Lynn Marie Goya, and Francisco Aguilar to take prompt action.
Essentially, the complaint alleges that the law passed by Nevada in 2021 is unconstitutional because it weakens ballots submitted on Election Day. The RNC and the Trump 2024 campaign argue that the law causes competitive electoral harm and forces the committee to allocate resources for election activities beyond Election Day.
During the 2020 election, the party attempted a similar challenge by asserting that the law impeded their ability to inform voters and combat voter fraud. However, they did not have standing, and the case was dismissed. They now insist that it is different this time because the mail ballot deadline compels them to divert resources from in-person voting activities and election-integrity measures.
Attorneys Thomas McCarthy, David Warrington, Sigal Chattah, Michael Columbo, and Alicia Ashcraft stated, “The mail ballot deadline also specifically and disproportionately harms Republican candidates.” Ashcraft and Columbo serve as representatives for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
The complaint asserts, “Dilution of honest votes, to any degree, by the casting of fraudulent or legitimate votes violates the right to vote. Nevada’s voting system permits illegitimate votes and therefore violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
As reported by the AP, the Nevada GOP represents approximately 550,000 Republican voters, and the state is one of 19 that permit the counting of ballots after Election Day. A representative for state secretary Aguilar did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday but told the AP he hoped the RNC was devoting as much time and effort to educating state voters as it was to suing state officials.
Meanwhile, Charlie Spies, a high-ranking lawyer for the Republican Party who was recruited by Trump supporters within the committee, has reportedly quit his position. The Washington Post reported Saturday that sources familiar with operations revealed that Spies’ departure was the result of Trump learning that Spies did not agree with his assertions that the 2020 election was “stolen.”