GOP Congressman Asks SCOTUS To Revive Lawsuit Over Illinois Mail-in Ballot Receipt Deadline
Illinois Republican Congressman Michael Bost asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revive his twice-dismissed legal challenge to state law that allows election officials to count timely postmarked or certified mail-in ballots for up to two weeks after an election.
A federal district court and the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously concluded that Bost and his Republican co-plaintiffs — two GOP presidential elector nominees — lacked standing to sue since they failed to demonstrate any harm attributable to the state’s 14-day receipt deadline.
In a cert petition filed yesterday, Bost asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hold that he and the other GOP plaintiffs have standing to sue as candidates for federal office and to allow their case to proceed on the merits in a federal district court. According to the petition, the 7th Circuit’s dismissal contained “serious legal errors” and uprooted precedent allowing federal candidates to challenge a state’s regulations on the time, place or manner of federal elections.
The GOP litigants — who are represented by the right-wing legal group Judicial Watch — have argued that Illinois’ 14-day mail-in ballot receipt deadline effectively “expands” Election Day in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal law, which requires states to hold Election Day on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Bost’s lawsuit also alleged that the two-week deadline allows “illegal ballots” to “dilute the value of timely ballots cast and received on or before Election Day.”
Tuesday’s cert petition — which solely focuses on the issue of standing — maintains that the challenged ballot receipt deadline imposes burdensome financial costs on candidates, who must monitor ballot receipt and counting for an additional two weeks to ensure an accurate tally of votes.
In a press release, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said “it is a scandal that the courts would deny a federal candidate the ability to challenge an election provision that could lead to illegal votes being cast and counted.”
Over the past year alone, federal courts in Nevada and North Dakota have rejected similar right-wing legal challenges to post-election ballot receipt deadlines on the basis of standing. However in October, an ultra-conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled in favor of the Republican National Committee and struck down Mississippi’s five-day deadline, holding that it runs afoul of federal law.
Advocacy groups have already asked the entire 5th Circuit to rehear the case out of Mississippi, underscoring the importance of post-election ballot receipt deadlines in protecting overseas and military voters from disenfranchisement.
Despite the fact that nearly 20 states and U.S. territories permit timely cast ballots to be received after Election Day, Republican litigants in recent years have repeatedly challenged the commonplace practice in light of President-elect Donald Trump’s crusade against the expansion of mail-in voting.