DNC Seeks To Intervene in Trump Nevada Lawsuit Challenging Mail-in Ballots
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Democratic National Committee (DNC) filed a motion today to intervene in a right-wing legal challenge to Nevada’s deadline for accepting mail-in ballots. It’s the latest development in the legal saga by the DNC to push back against the myriad anti-voting claims in at least four lawsuits brought by the Republican National Committee (RNC) against election officials.
On May 3, the RNC, the Nevada Republican Party, and the campaign of former President Donald Trump sued Nevada Secretary of State Fransisco Aguilar (D) and election officials in Washoe and Clark Counties over the Silver State’s ballot receipt deadline. Under Nevada state law, mail-in ballots are allowed to be counted so long as they’re received up to four business days after Election Day, and presumes that ballots received up to three days after Election Day were postmarked on Election Day.
In its complaint, the RNC claims that Nevada’s rules for mail-in ballots violates the U.S. Constitution because it’s contrary to the federal law that sets the date for presidential and congressional elections. The lawsuit also argues that the state’s ballot receipt deadline inadvertently harms the GOP and its candidates because they can’t win elections without diverting their attention and resources to post-election activity.
The lawsuit is one of at least four brought by the RNC against election officials that are rife with anti-voting claims — and marks the first lawsuit of the cycle in which Trump’s campaign is a plaintiff. The committee also filed lawsuits in Michigan and one in Mississippi that target various election procedures, including voter roll maintenance.
On Friday, May 10, Vet Voice Foundation and Nevada Alliance for Retired Americans — pro-voting groups representing veterans and retirees — also filed a motion to intervene in this lawsuit.
Recently, the DNC filed amicus — or “friend of the court” — briefs in each lawsuit, calling them “an obvious collateral attack on election administration generally, intended to undermine confidence in elections and designed to sow doubt about the outcome of the 2024 presidential contest.”
In the DNC’s motion to intervene in the Nevada lawsuit, the Democratic committee wrote that the RNC’s argument that the state is impermissibly “holding voting open” beyond Election Day in violation of federal law is a “narrow interpretation” of the U.S. Constitution. The DNC adds that, if the RNC were correct in that view, “then the consequences for Nevada elections, and elections across the country would be nothing short of profound.”