By Ken Ritter | Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — A rural Nevada county roiled by voting machine conspiracy theories stopped its unprecedented effort Friday to count ballots cast in advance of Election Day.
But Nye County officials vowed to reshape their plan and seek another go-ahead from the Nevada Supreme Court, after justices ruled Thursday that counting methods used this week violated rules they set to prevent the county from allowing early disclosure of election results.
“Yesterday’s Supreme Court order requires us to make some changes to our hand count process,” Nye County officials said in a statement issued Friday that promised to “resume as soon as our plan is in compliance with the court’s order and approved by the secretary of state.”
Volunteers spent hours Wednesday and Thursday hand counting hundreds of mail ballots before the court issued a unanimous three-page opinion siding with objections raised by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.
The ACLU accused Nye County officials of failing to prevent public release of early results before polls close to in-person voting Nov. 8. It argued that reading candidates’ names aloud from ballots within hearing distance of public observers violated the court rule.
“Today is a victory for all who believe in democracy,” Sadmira Ramic, an ALCU voting rights attorney, said late Thursday.
On Wednesday, The Associated Press and other observers, including some from the ACLU, watched as volunteers were sworn in and split...
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