Under federal law, Election Day in the United States is not two days, two weeks or two months. It is a single day. That anyone might insist otherwise is difficult to imagine.
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections, a case challenging Illinois’ decision to count mail-in-ballots that arrive up to 14 days after Election Day. For 80 years, Election Day has been held on the same day in November. This date has been repeatedly reaffirmed by Congress and solidified into U.S. law. Yet in 2005, in flagrant violation of that law, Illinois began permitting the counting of mail-in ballots received up to 14 days after Election Day.
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Their case should have been easy to decide, but shockingly, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that neither Mr. Bost nor the electors had “standing” to bring the lawsuit. In short, the courts refused even to permit the plaintiffs a chance to challenge the counting of late ballots in court.
That question has reached the Supreme Court, and the justices showed serious skepticism toward Illinois’ defense.
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Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh added that such a theory “depends on prognostication,” not law. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch warned that it would be “unseemly” for courts to predict a candidate’s chances of winning, a process that “itself might influence the election.”
As Judicial Watch attorney Paul Clement argued to the judges, “candidates have standing to challenge the rules that govern the election.”
Spending additional money and time to deal with illicit vote counting should be more than enough to give a candidate his day in court. Allowing late ballots to be counted extends Election Day for weeks and imposes significant and burdensome costs on candidates, who will be forced to extend campaigns well beyond the usual time frame. Candidates will also be required to foot the bill for representatives to oversee the counting of late-arriving ballots.
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If the justices rule for Mr. Bost, lower courts will finally have to judge Illinois’ 14-day counting window against the federal statute requiring a single, uniform Election Day. That could set a nationwide precedent, restoring the integrity of vote counting in every state.
We could hear as soon as Friday whether the Supreme Court will take up a Mississippi case where the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Mississippi cannot count ballots after Election Day.
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All Americans deserve a system of integrity and transparency, not one that invites fraud and election rigging. The 5th Circuit has already agreed with Judicial Watch that counting ballots even five days after Election Day is unlawful. If the Supreme Court now confirms that principle and rules in our clients’ favor, we like the odds of ending this illicit vote counting in Illinois and across the nation.
• Tom Fitton is the president of Judicial Watch.
* Original Article:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/oct/15/supreme-court-must-end-illegal-vote-counting/