Photo: Adobe Stock
The state of Illinois has been slapped with a federal lawsuit that is aimed at halting the counting of ballots after Election Day.
Judicial Watch announced last month they are filing the lawsuit on behalf of Rep. Mike Bost and two Illinois voters to stop state election officials from “extending Election Day for 14 days beyond the date established by federal law.”
According to Judicial Watch’s press release on the case, the suit argues that Illinois is violating federal law by counting mail-in ballots after election day. Federal law defines “Election Day as ‘the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year.’”
Additionally, they noted the following:
- Ballots received after Election Day until Nov. 17, 2020, could “materially affect the unofficial election results,”
- Illinois voting data reveals that they received 266,417 mail-in ballots between Nov. 3 and Nov. 17,
- Most of those votes were received after Election Day. They postulate in the complaint that this would account for 4.4 percent of the vote.
However, this is not the first time that Illinois has attracted suspicion regarding its election processes.
In 2021, District Attorney Robert Berlin of DuPage County, Illinois, announced that his law office would be filing voter fraud charges against five people related to the 2020 presidential election, according to a report from The Western Journal.
The issue of how to count mail-in ballots and what could potentially disqualify a ballot from being counted has been a heated topic of debate among many lawmakers over the past year.
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on Thursday ruled to allow the counting of undated mail-in ballots for a 2021 Pennsylvania judgeship, according to a report from Reuters.
Judicial Watch’s lawsuit against Illinois will likely determine the standard for counting ballots in a general election in the state. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated, “We are supposed to have an Election Day, not Election Weeks – or months. Illinois’ 14-day extension of Election Day beyond the date set by Congress is illegal, violates the civil rights of voters, and encourages fraud.”
