The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Wednesday that a Republican representative for Illinois can challenge state rules surrounding mail-in ballot counting. Because of the decision, Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) can sue the state over its ability to count mail-in ballots received after Election Day.
“Candidates have a concrete and particularized interest in the rules that govern the counting of votes in their elections, regardless whether those rules harm their electoral prospects or increase the cost of their campaigns,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “Their interest extends to the integrity of the election—and the democratic process by which they earn or lose the support of the people they seek to represent.”
While Justice Amy Coney Barrett agreed with the decision, she offered a different reasoning. “In my view, Congressman Bost has standing because he has suffered a traditional pocketbook injury, not because of his status as a candidate,” she wrote in a concurring opinion alongside Justice Elena Kagan.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, arguing that the congressman “plainly failed to allege facts that support an inference of standing under our established precedents.”
“By carving out a bespoke rule for candidate-plaintiffs—granting them standing ‘to challenge the rules that govern the counting of votes,’ simply and solely because they are ‘candidate[s]’ for office … the Court now complicates and destabilizes both our standing law and America’s electoral processes.”
“I’m thankful the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled strongly in our favor and concluded we have standing to challenge Illinois’ unconstitutional law allowing vote-by-mail ballots to be counted two weeks after Election Day,” Bost said in a statement. “This is a critically important step forward in the fight for election integrity and fair elections. I look forward to continuing to pursue this case as we navigate the next stages of the legal process. It’s vitally important that we restore the people’s trust in our elections.”
Judicial Watch filed the suit on behalf of Bost and two presidential electors in May 2022.
