WASHINGTON, October 8 – The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether a Republican lawmaker can challenge an Illinois voting rule that lets mail‑in ballots counted for up to two weeks after Election Day. The outcome could change how elections are run in 2028.
Rep. Mike Bost (R‑Ill.), who represents a deep‑red district in southern Illinois, filed a lawsuit saying the state law is unfair. He wants the Court to let his case move forward, but lower courts have rejected his challenge. The 7th Circuit ruled that Bost had no standing because his lawsuit was speculative and showed no clear harm.
Chief Justice John Roberts told Bost’s lawyer that giving candidates a path to sue election rules could lead to a “potential disaster.” He warned that if a candidate with a big chance of winning files a lawsuit, it could fuel chaos later in the campaign.
“Stand the case, or else you risk losing time and skepticism,” Roberts said. “The election officials would have to fight on front‑lines and courts would get entangled in too many disputes.”
Jonas Notz, Illinois’s Solicitor General, added that opening the door for candidates to challenge every rule could upset the election system. “A candidate can name a rule, argue it’s unjust, and the courts will have to pick it up,” she said.
Bost, who is running for his seventh House term, has never lost by more than six percentage points and won 74.2 % of the vote last year. He, along with former President Trump’s Illinois delegates, had sued in 2022 over mail‑in ballot rules.
About 17 states and Washington, D.C., allow mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day to be counted for a period of time after polls close. This practice runs in parallel with federal rules that follow a similar window.
While the justices got divided on Bost’s case, the debate echoed the 2020 lawsuits that Trump’s allies filed. Most of those cases were tossed out because the challengers could not show that they would be harmed by the rules.
Conservative justices expressed worries about pre‑election lawsuits. “If a candidate acts like they are safe from losing, they often do,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh told the courtroom. He feared that more lawsuits could disrupt post‑election litigation and create “chaos” for election officials.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, on the other hand, argued that relief should only be given when a candidate can prove “statistically impossible” odds of winning. “We’re not here to predict elections; we’re here to fix valid problems,” she said.
If the Court sides with Bost, lawmakers anywhere could argue that a law is unfair and they might win a ruling before election day. That could enable many more challenges across the country.
The decision comes at a time when states are re‑examining voting rules ahead of this year’s all‑nation voting month and the 2028 presidential race. Many eyes will turn to how the Supreme Court’s ruling shapes the future of voter rights and election integrity.
Source: New York Post
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