PAHRUMP, Nev. (AP) – An unprecedented hand-count of mail-in ballots in a rural Nevada county is on hold and may not resume. The Nevada Supreme Court said in a ruling late Thursday the process underway in Nye County is illegal. The Republican secretary of state who has been highly critical of conspiracy fraud theories that fueled the hand count directed the county clerk to “cease immediately.” Volunteers had wrapped up a second day of hand-counting the ballots by the time the high court issued an opinion siding with objections raised by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. The ACLU says Nye County lawyers told them the hand count had been shut down.