Supreme Court allows candidate challenges to state ballot-counting rules

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the court's opinion, allowing the challenge to “Illinois’s procedure for counting mail-in ballots received after election day" to proceed.

The U.S. Supreme court on Friday held that candidates have standing to challenge state election rules for the counting of ballots — a view of a mere five-justice majority of the court.

Ultimately, seven justices found that U.S. Rep. Michael Bost has standing to challenge the Illinois policies — although two justices used different reasoning to reach that decision.

Chief Justice John Roberts authored the court’s opinion for the five — the court’s men — in Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections, holding Bost has particularized standing to challenge “Illinois’s procedure for counting mail-in ballots received after election day.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, concurred in judgment only, finding that Bost has standing but only because he “has suffered a traditional pocketbook injury.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented, chastising the majority’s “bespoke candidate-standing rule.”

The decision could change the landscape for how — and how often — election policies are challenged and is in contrast with the Supreme Court’s decisions limiting when and how people can sue under the Voting Rights Act.

As Roberts wrote for the court’s five-justice majority, “As a candidate for office, Congressman Bost has standing to challenge the rules that govern the counting of votes in his election.“

The ruling allows Bost’s lawsuit to go forward, but did not address the merits of the challenge.

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