* Capitol News Illinois in January…

[US Rep. Mike Bost] and a pair of 2020 Illinois primary delegates for President Donald Trump sued the Illinois State Board of Elections in 2022, arguing that the state’s law allowing late-arriving mail-in ballots to be counted up to 14 days after the polls close violates the federal law establishing an “Election Day.” The ballots must be postmarked by Election Day.

The court’s ruling on Wednesday did not weigh in on the merits of Bost’s argument. Rather, it allowed his legal challenge to proceed at the lower level of the federal court system.

* Today, the Supreme Court upheld Mississippi’s law allowing mail-in ballots received after Election Day to be counted if postmarked by then. CNBC…

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Mississippi can continue to count some absentee ballots received after Election Day, rejecting a Republican challenge contending that those votes are invalid under federal law.

The 5-4 opinion, which was written by one of President Donald Trump’s appointees and joined by the court’s three liberals, delivers a blow to ongoing efforts by Trump and the GOP to curtail mail-in voting ahead of the midterms. […]

“The federal election-day statutes do not prevent Mississippi from counting absentee ballots postmarked by election day but received up to five days thereafter,” the court held. “Nothing in the federal election-day statutes requires ballots to be received by election day.”

* From the opinion…

The Constitution requires the “Day on which [the electors] shall give their Votes” to be “the same throughout the United States.” But it says nothing about the day for receipt, and, of course, 18th-century modes of transmission did not offer same-day delivery. The Constitution therefore envisions a system in which receipt is necessarily divorced from voting, and it sets the crucial, uniform day as the day of voting, leaving receipt to happen down the line.

The federal election-day statutes follow the same pattern: They set when the people “shall give their Votes,” but leave open when those votes must be received. In sum, the election-day statutes require the electorate’s choice to be made on election day. That occurs so long as election day is the deadline for individuals to vote—as it is in Mississippi. But the election-day statutes do not set a deadline for ballot receipt, so they do not prevent Mississippi from counting ballots postmarked before election day yet received afterward.

…Adding… Gov. Pritzker…

“Donald Trump is using every weapon in his arsenal to attack our free and fair elections. The Supreme Court ruled against him today on an asinine attempt to throw out a law that ensures mail ballots get counted, but his assault is not over. We cannot look away while the most corrupt president in history attempts to rewrite our election laws to serve his own interests.”