A Nevada judge on Monday denied a legal bid by the Trump campaign and state Republicans to stop the count of mail-in ballots in Las Vegas, the state’s most populous and Democrat-leaning county.
An immediate appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court is being considered, said Adam Laxalt, co-chairman of the Trump campaign in Nevada.
Judge James Wilson Jr. acknowledged that state election law was reshaped last summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it allows in-person votes and mailed-in ballots to be physically handled differently.
But, “nothing the state or Clark County has done values one voter’s vote over another’s," he said.
Wilson heard a full day of arguments last Wednesday in Carson City during which attorney Jesse Binnall, representing the Trump campaign and state party, asked to stop the count until election officials in Las Vegas allowed “meaningful” oversight of ballot processing and let observers challenge ballots.
Binnall did not challenge ballot processing in other Nevada counties, which lean Republican.
He lost his bid for a court order to stop use of the optical scanning machine to validate voter signatures and to let the GOP install cameras to monitor counting.
Binnall's argument pleaded for transparency and cited testimony from count-watchers recruited by the campaign who said some ballots were processed outside the view of observers.
© Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.