Group says Illinois counting mail-in ballots after election could be reigned in

[November 19, 2024]  By Catrina Barker | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – The Nov. 5 General Election was two weeks ago, but Illinois continues to count vote-by-mail ballots. An election integrity group says the practice could be reigned in.

Carol Davis, chairman of the Illinois Conservative Union, said a recent federal appeals court ruling will likely result in states, like Illinois, not counting mail-in ballots that are cast and postmarked by Election Day but arrive five days later.

"This will end up with the United States Supreme Court and it will probably happen before the midterms in 2026, so we should see one-day election day before the midterm election in 2026,” said Davis. “Even though the states have the right to set the time, place and manner of elections, the elections clause of the Constitution designates one-day Election Day.”

In late October, the Republican National Committee and Judicial Watch partnered up and won a lawsuit reversing a lower court ruling allowing vote-by-mail ballots to be counted five days after election day as long as it was postmarked by Election Day.

Davis also said the Republican-majority Congress will take a carrot-stick approach to states with laws that allow vote-by-mail counting after Election Day.

"Your state doesn’t want voter-ID, then no road funds for you. President [Ronald] Reagan used it successfully. ‘We want the states to do this, if you don’t do it we can take away money,’” said Davis.

Illinois law gives elections officials two weeks to count vote-by-mail ballots with election day on the postmark.

In Pennsylvania, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick filed lawsuits against elections officials who openly defied a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that said undated ballots could not be counted.

Unlike in Pennsylvania, Davis said in Illinois it’s not illegal to count undated ballots.

"In Illinois, the statute says they [officials] are supposed to go by the postmark, but if that vote-by-mail ballot doesn’t have a postmark, they can use the date, which the voter attest that they mailed it,” said Davis.

Davis said, hypothetically, an Illinois voter could have filled out a vote-by-mail ballot on Nov. 6 and then illegally attested that he or she filled out that ballot before Election day, and that ballot could then be counted as long as it gets to an election authority within the 14-day window.

"They [voters] have to sign the inside envelope attesting that this is my ballot, here’s my signature, and here’s the date I voted. Of course they are going to date before Election day or on Election Day,” said Davis.

On Nov. 16, newly counted ballots chipped away at Trump’s vote total in Illinois, with Kamala Harris receiving 21,028 more votes and Trump receiving 2,550 votes in Chicago.

The last day to count vote-by-mail ballots is Nov. 19.