A traditional legitimate business is ratcheting up its opposition to the condition in , Illinois , that mail-in vote be counted for 14 days after , Election Day , by calling on the , U. S. Supreme Court , to change federal court decisions that upheld the law because three Republican plaintiffs lacked the legal standing to challenge it.
The charm, filed Tuesday by the organization , Judicial Watch, even asks the world’s highest court to clarify decisions about who has the right to appeal post-Election Day , issues, after several complaints contesting adult state results of the 2020 election filed on behalf of , Donald Trump , were tossed for lack of position.  , Judicial Watch , was among many organizations that assisted Trump in seeking to end the calculating of mail-in votes after , Election Day , four years ago when Trump lost to President , Joe Biden.
The charm to the , Supreme Court , comes less than a fortnight after a federal appeals court in , Louisiana , sided with , Republicans , and ruled Mississippi’s law allowing mail-in vote counting after , Election Day , violated federal laws.
At issue in the , Illinois , event is a 2015 position law that requires the counting of mail-in votes that are postmarked or voter-signed and qualified by , Election Day , and arrive within the following 14 days.
In , May 2022,  , Judicial Watch , led the constitutional team , that brought the coat on representative of , U. S.  , Rep.  , Mike Bost, then a five-term Republican senator from , Murphysboro, and two GOP Trump electors, alleging the post-Election Day , vote counting violated the officially established date for national general elections.
Bost was allegedly subject to legal sanctions because he was required to pay campaign poll watchers to observe the post-election day  and counting, according to the complaint. The coat also contended those mail-in vote “diluted” seats that were “timely” cast up to and on , Election Day.
The U. S. Justice Department , has supported upholding the , Illinois , legislation in part to ensure that defense votes cast abroad are counted. Bost is a Marine senior.
In , July 2023, U. S. District Judge , John Kness , dismissed the coat for absence of position. Kness also rejected the match based on the merits of the case, saying the , Illinois , law complied with the , U. S.  , Constitution , as well as national election laws.
Kness, a Trump appointee, ruled the state law “does no conflict with the national authority that , Election Day , be held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November” and that” by counting just mail-in vote postmarked on or before , Election Day, the legislation does not stretch the day for casting vote in a national vote”.
Addressing an appeal of Kness ‘ ruling, a three judge panel for the , 7th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals , on , Aug. 21 , ruled 2-1 in siding with Kness that the challengers lacked standing to bring the lawsuit because they failed to allege an injury.
The panel’s majority, which was made up of one justice appointed by Trump and the other appointed by President , Barack Obama, said the alleged harms faced by Bost and the others were “generalized” and speculative.
The panel criticized the downstate congressman’s claims that he was harmed by having to hire poll watchers as an attempt to “manufacture standing by choosing to spend money to mitigate… conjectural risks” after he won reelection in 2022 with 75 % of the vote. Bost received more than 74 % of the vote in unofficial results, which indicate that he will win reelection this month.
More than 1.2 million ballots were cast in the 2024 general election as a result of lawmakers ‘ encouragement of mail-in voting, which allows voters to send a permanent application for a vote. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 general election saw more than one-third of the ballots in , Illinois , cast by mail. And mail received about 18 % of the votes in the 2022 general election.
Democrats , in , Illinois , and nationally have traditionally mounted strong vote-by-mail programs — a voting strategy , Republicans , adopted this year after Trump reversed his opposition to mail-in voting when he falsely claimed in his losing 2020 campaign that such ballots were rife with fraud.
But the issue of post-Election Day , ballot counting in , Illinois, among about 20 states nationally that have such a provision, could face changes as a result of an , Oct. 25 , ruling on a Republican-backed lawsuit by the conservative , 5th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees , Mississippi,  , Louisiana , and , Texas.
That appeals court ruled Mississippi’s law allowing mail-in ballot counting five days after , Election Day , violated federal law. An appeal of the ruling to the , U. S. Supreme Court , is likely and Justice Watch attorneys noted in their , Illinois , appeal to the high court that the” strength” of its case has “improved” as a result of the 5th Circuit ruling.
By having the , U. S. Supreme Court , overturn the , Illinois , rulings and remand the case to the lower courts, it would allow them” to consider the merits of the important questions raised by the petitioner’s claims”, Justice Watch contended.
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