Suit over Nevada voting law dismissed

LAS VEGAS — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign challenging Nevada’s new vote-by-mail law, saying the campaign failed to show how it could be harmed.

The campaign, which has filed lawsuits in several states over voting rules, had asked the judge to block a new Nevada law that calls for mail-in ballots to automatically be sent to all active Nevada voters, a change prompted by efforts to contain the coronavirus.

The campaign has argued that the law passed by the Democratic-led state Legislature is unconstitutional, removes election safeguards and allows people to cast votes after Election Day.

U.S. Judge James Mahan, in a ruling Friday, dismissed the case. He said the Trump campaign and Republicans made allegations that were policy disagreements but did not show any constitutional harms. He said Trump’s campaign asked the court to rule in the case to clear “confusion” over the new law, but he noted that it did not ask for any injunction to temporarily block the law or for any speedy court proceedings, leaving the case poised for a last-minute decision before the election.

Ballots will start to be mailed to voters on Thursday in some counties. In Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and about three-quarters of the state’s population, ballots will be mailed in early October.

“I said from the beginning that President Trump and the Republican Party didn’t have a leg to stand on, and I’m pleased that the court agrees. Their allegations of fraud are speculative at best,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said.

The Nevada Democratic Party, which sought to join the lawsuit on the state’s side, called the ruling a “win for democracy.”

The office of Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, declined to comment on the lawsuit.