EDITORIAL: Deadlines are an integral part of any election
Tuesday has come and gone, but election officials in Nevada are still counting ballots. Nevada law mandates that mail ballots postmarked by Election Day be tallied as long as they are received within four days of the election.
The Nevada Supreme Court has also liberally interpreted the law to allow election officials to count unpostmarked ballots that arrive in the mail by Friday despite the clear language of the statute requiring a postmark to ensure validity.
This is ridiculous — and lawmakers should do something about it.
The current system — created by legislative Democrats as a COVID emergency measure but later made permanent because they believe it provides them with advantages to exploit — leads to inevitable delays and fuels conspiracy theories, particularly when votes received after voting has closed end up swaying the results one way or the other.
But there’s another problem: It may also be illegal. Last month, a federal appeals court tossed a Mississippi law allowing election officials to count absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days later.
“Congress statutorily designated a singular ‘day for the election’ of members of Congress and the appointment of presidential electors,” wrote a unanimous three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “Text, precedent and historical practice confirm this ‘day for the election’ is the day by which ballots must be both cast by voters and received by state officials.”
The judges noted that, while the Constitution gives states the power to set the “times, places and manner of holding” certain elections, it vests Congress with the “power” to alter those state “regulations or supplant them altogether.” They also conclude that a ballot can’t be officially “cast” until the state takes custody of it.
The ruling does not apply to Nevada. But an eventual U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the matter would have ramifications here.
By all means, let’s have a debate about the proper balance between election access and election security. Let’s discuss the wisdom of sending mail ballots to all registered voters, whether they requested one or not. Let’s consider the propriety of ballot “harvesting,” which allows third parties to collect and return ballots with little oversight.
But how is it controversial to demand that valid mail ballots be received by election Tuesday, thus helping to ensure the prompt tabulation of votes and, in turn, boosting public trust in the process? Other states impose earlier deadlines on mail ballots without issue.
The Supreme Court has held, “Reasonable regulation of elections … does require (voters) to act in a timely fashion if they wish to express their views in the voting booth.” For mail voters, that should include taking the responsibility to ensure their ballot gets where it needs to be by Election Day.