The 2024 election may be over, but the legal battle about how long Nevada can count mail ballots — a proxy battle over the future of mail-in voting — remains ongoing.

On Thursday, the Democratic National Committee asked a federal appeals court to deny an appeal filed in a nearly yearlong legal case brought by state and national Republicans seeking to end Nevada’s practice of accepting mail ballots as many as four days after an election, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. 

In May, the Nevada Republican Party, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit alleging that Nevada’s practice of accepting those mail ballots violates federal election law. That lawsuit was dismissed in July by U.S. District Court judge Miranda Du, on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing.

The Republican National Committee then appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The DNC’s filing, shared exclusively with The Nevada Independent, argues that a ruling in the Republicans' favor would disrupt decades of election administration precedent and upend voting laws not just in Nevada. Currently, 15 states and the District of Columbia allow ballots to arrive after Election Day so long as they are postmarked in time, and several other states allow some late-arriving ballots for certain groups such as voters abroad and members of the military.

The DNC’s motion comes in the wake of Republicans prevailing in a similar case, when the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in October that a Mississippi law allowing election officials to count late-arriving ballots was unconstitutional. The judge in that case did not grant an injunction; meaning that the ruling was not in effect for Election Day in 2024, but it could impact states down the line — Republicans cited that ruling in their Ninth Circuit appeal.

The Nevada case, then, is another opportunity for both parties to argue the constitutionality of counting late-arriving ballots — and adverse rulings in two appeals courts could bring the battle to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Make no mistake: 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,” DNC Vice Chair Artie Blanco, a Nevadan, said in a statement. 

In Republicans’ lawsuit and subsequent appeal, they argue that the practice of accepting late-arriving ballots creates an “illegally structured competitive environment” that harms Republicans, both because they vote by mail less often and because the state party then has to spend time working on post-Election Day activities.

“Nevada’s extended deadline for mail ballots disproportionately benefits Democrats, whose voters overwhelmingly tend to vote by mail and return those ballots later than Republicans,” the plaintiffs wrote in their appeal.

But Du, the district court judge, was unmoved by their argument, stating that any advantage from the late counting of ballots applies equally to both political parties — even if “less often employed” by the Republican Party.

In their appeal, the Republican plaintiffs asked the Ninth Circuit to remand the district court’s order.

Late-arriving mail ballots make up a relatively small percentage of the state’s total votes. According to data from the secretary of state’s office, in 2024, ballots arriving after Election Day accounted for less than 1 percent of all ballots cast in Clark County — 9,467 out of more than 1.03 million ballots. Similarly in Washoe County, late-arriving mail ballots accounted for less than 1 percent of all ballots cast. In both counties, the vast majority of these ballots arrived the day after Election Day.