IL-12: Appeals court skeptical of Mike Bost's (R) case to stop ballot counts after Election Day

A panel of federal appellate judges on Thursday seemed skeptical of legal arguments made on behalf of Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, who claims Illinois’ law allowing counting of mail-in ballots for two weeks after an election is in violation of federal law.

Bost’s late 2022 lawsuit was filed with help from a conservative group that assisted former President Donald Trump’s efforts to block the counting of mail-in ballots after Election Day 2020. The suit named the Illinois State Board of Elections, seeking the court’s intervention against a 2015 state law that allows vote-by-mail ballots to be counted if they’re received within 14 days of Election Day so long as they were postmarked on or before Election Day.

A lower court judge dismissed Bost’s case last summer, ruling the state’s law governing mail-in ballots is in step with federal law. But Bost appealed, leading to Thursday’s oral arguments in front of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

The arguments happened to be scheduled nine days after Illinois’ 2024 Primary Election, in which the race for Cook County State’s Attorney was still too close to call Thursday as local election authorities were still counting mail-in ballots. While that scenario didn’t come up in front of the panel, Bost’s own recent electoral history did.




https://www.northernpublicradio.org/illinois/2024-03-28/appeals-court-skeptical-of-mike-bosts-case-to-stop-ballot-counts-after-election-day