Nevada Supreme Court rejects petition to stop hand count of county ballots

The Nevada Supreme Court has unanimously rejected a petition to stop the hand counting of midterm ballots in the state's Nye County.

The six justices in their order filed Monday night – in response to the petition by the ACLU of Nevada and Brennan Center for Justice – said they did not demonstrate that the court's intervention was warranted, according to local TV station News3lv.

The justices also said there is no law that clearly prohibits a hand count simultaneously to a machine count and that the petition raised several issues are not in the court's jurisdiction.

The ACLU of Nevada called the hand count "unnecessary and error-ridden" and that it was "disappointed to see the .... hand-count circus to continue this go around."

Nevada law requires that counties submit plans for election administration related to ballot security and voting accuracy to the Secretary of State's office, the news outlet also reported.

Attorneys for the ACLU argued that because the office did not approve any previous hand-count proposals, new plans would violate the law, even if they run parallel to a machine count.

The organization also said there are no security measures in place to make sure ballots aren't altered during the counting process.

However, a county clerk told News 3 last week that the Secretary of State's office has approved the county's revised procedures.