ACLU challenge of Nevada ballot hand-counting dismissed

A Nye County District Court judge rejected an emergency petition by the ACLU’s Nevada chapter which requested that the county shelf it’s idea to count votes by hand alongside a machine tabulator starting this month.

The plan to count votes by hand was put in place in response to concerns about election fraud.

The ACLU said that hand counting votes could risk voting results being released early as each batch is announced, which they said would violate state statute. The ACLU added that as the early release of voting results is a criminalized by the Nevada statue, this puts the hand counters at risk of prosecution.

In a Wednesday ruling, District Court Judge Kimberly Wanker dismissed the case, largely on technicalities. The judge said that the ACLU failed to provide a recording or transcript of the Nye County Board of Commissioners meeting, which is publicly available, and was referenced in their lawsuit.

The ACLU’s executive director Athar Haseebullah plans to file a new petition, which they will take to the Nevada Supreme Court.  

Mark Kampf, who is the interim Nye County clerk and is leading the hand-counting process, said that he would not comment on the lawsuit or its dismissal.

Kampf confirmed in an email that the county will not deviate from its original plan and will proceed with the hand count before Election Day.

On Tuesday, prior to the ruling, Nye County spokesman Arnold Knightly said the lawsuit misrepresented the county and Kampf’s election plans, promising that the county would build a “vigorous legal defense that clarifies the misleading allegations and disposes of the legal action as swiftly as possible.”