A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by former President Donald Trump’s campaign and its allies that sought to end Nevada’s practice of counting mail ballots received up to four days after Election Day.

In a Wednesday ruling, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Miranda Du dismissed the case on the grounds that the plaintiffs — which also included the Republican National Committee (RNC), Nevada GOP and a Nevada voter — did not have standing to file the lawsuit, which alleged the state is violating federal election law by accepting and counting mail ballots postmarked by Election Day but received as many as four days after the election. The Associated Press first reported news of the dismissal Wednesday.

“The Court finds that Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the Nevada mail ballot receipt deadline and dismisses this case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction,” Du wrote.

Claire Zunk, the RNC’s spokeswoman on election integrity, said in a statement that it will be pursuing further legal action on the case and that “a liberal judge unjustifiably dismissed our case.” Du was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in a 59-39 vote.

Charles Lutvak, a Biden campaign spokesperson, said in a statement the lawsuit was “completely meritless” and the dismissal “protects eligible Nevada voters' right to vote and have their vote counted.” The Biden campaign had intervened in the case and called for its dismissal. 

The secretary of state’s office declined to comment.

The dismissal marks the second legal defeat in the past month for the RNC and Nevada GOP. Another federal lawsuit brought by the groups alleging inconsistencies in state voter rolls was tossed out last month, though that suit was amended and refiled earlier this month. These lawsuits are part of a push by the RNC to pursue court battles regarding election administration in swing states, largely by filing a deluge of lawsuits.

The mail ballot counting suit relates to a 2021 law that was staunchly opposed by Nevada Republicans. The law permanently expanded universal mail voting in the state and allowed any mail ballot postmarked on or by Election Day to be counted as long as it is received within four days of Election Day.

In the 2022 election, more than 45,000 mail ballots were counted after Election Day in Clark and Washoe counties, the overwhelming majority of which were received the day after Election Day, according to data from the secretary of state’s office. These totals represented about 6 percent of all Clark County ballots and 3 percent of all Washoe County ballots.

In the race for U.S. Senate that year, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) defeated former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt by about 8,000 votes.

Plaintiffs in the GOP lawsuit said they had standing to file the lawsuit because they alleged the law is harming them electorally, citing data that shows mail voting to be more popular among Democrats than Republicans. GOP politicians had discouraged mail voting in prior elections based on the false claims that the method is rife with fraud, but have reversed course and embraced a “bank your vote” strategy this election cycle.

In Du’s dismissal of the lawsuit, she argued that the Republicans’ standing claims were unconvincing.

First, she said that the GOP groups “failed to establish” that the mail ballot counting deadline gives Democrats an unfair advantage, and that any so-called advantage “appears to be equally available to, but simply less often employed by, Republicans.” Additionally, Du determined that the Republican groups did not sufficiently show that any electoral harm would be redressed by changing the deadline to count mail ballots.

The lawsuit also alleged that the mail ballot deadline requires them to divert resources to conduct more election activities after Election Day, which would be more expensive and time consuming.

Du was also unconvinced by this argument.

“The record is devoid of evidence, however, that Organizational Plaintiffs would not round up mail ballots in substantially the same manner if they were due at county clerks’ offices on Election Day instead of four days later; they would just conduct those same activities a few days earlier in November or over a shortened period of time,” she wrote.

Du also ruled the Republican voter who was also listed as a plaintiff lacked standing because the mail ballot counting deadline “does not specifically disadvantage any one voter.”