Nevada high court rejects plea to stop county’s hand-count

By GABE STERN
Associated Press/Report for America

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The Nevada Supreme Court denied an emergency writ from two voting rights groups on Monday that sought to shut down a controversial hand-count of all paper ballots in rural Nye County, meaning that the county clerk can continue the hand-counting of ballots that have been counted by machine tabulators. The ACLU of Nevada and the Brennan Center for Justice argue in a document filed Monday with the Nevada Supreme Court that Nye County’s interim county clerk “invented” an unauthorized hand-counting practice that hasn’t been legally vetted. The court ruled that they had not demonstrated that the courts “extraordinary intervention,” mainly citing that the secretary of state’s office had signed off on the plans and had been in communication with Nye County.