On January 14, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that
political candidates can bring lawsuits over election rules. In
Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections, 607 U.S. ___ (2026), the
Court held that a candidate for office has the right to challenge
state rules about how votes are counted, even if the candidate
cannot prove the rule will change the outcome of an election.
The Case
Illinois law allows election officials to count mail-in ballots
that are postmarked by Election Day and received up to two weeks
later. See Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 10, §§5/19–8(c),
5/18A–15(a). Congressman Michael Bost and other candidates
sued the Illinois State Board of Elections, arguing that counting
ballots received after Election Day violates a federal law that
sets a single national Election Day. Lower courts dismissed the
case, reasoning that the candidates lacked standing because they
had not shown that the rule would actually cause them to lose or
materially affect the
