(Excerpt) – An upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case could shake up future elections for Nevada and 15 other states that allow post-Election Day mail-ballot counting.
Earlier this month, the higher court agreed to hear the case out of Mississippi that’s challenging a state law that permits mail ballots postmarked by Election Day there to be tallied upwards of five days after polls close.
The Supreme Court case is expected to be argued in the coming months, with a resolution possible by late June, according to the Associated Press.
Said DNC Chair Ken Martin in a statement after the Supreme Court decision: “Republicans don’t want to see Americans exercising their sacred right to vote. They want to restrict, limit, and infringe on the rights of voters because they know that when more eligible citizens vote, Republicans lose.”
Voters disenfranchised?
Chuck Muth, a Nevada Republican and president of an organization that’s challenged the state’s voter rolls, countered that rolling back the deadline “doesn’t disenfranchise anybody.”
“Every ballot should be received on Election Day and counted on Election Day,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal Wednesday. “That’s the way we believe it should be.”
Voters in Nevada who can’t mail ballots on time, Muth said, have the options to vote early, cast their choices on Election Day or place their ballots in drop boxes.
He said he was sure somebody would challenge the Nevada law if Republicans were successful in the Supreme Court.