Saying the case could result in Democratic votes not being counted, the Democratic Party of Illinois has asked to be allowed to argue against a lawsuit brought against the state of Illinois by a group of Republicans, challenging a state elections law that allows election officials to count mail-in ballots up to 14 days after Election Day, even if the ballots aren’t postmarked.
“While Defendants (the Illinois State Board of Elections) have an interest in defending the actions of state and local governments, DPI has a different interest: ensuring that every Democratic voter in Illinois has a meaningful opportunity to cast a ballot and have that ballot counted in the upcoming elections,” the Democratic Party said in their court filing.
The Democrats’ motion to intervene was filed on June 17.
Coral Negron
| Jenner & Block
It arrived about three weeks after three Republicans, including downstate U.S. Rep. Michael J. Bost, filed suit in Chicago federal court.
The lawsuit notes federal law establishes votes in federal elections should be cast by “the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year.”
In 2022, that date will be Nov. 8.
However, under Illinois’ new election law, Illinois election officials will be allowed to continue receiving votes by mail for weeks after that date.
“Despite Congress’ clear statement regarding a single national Election Day, Illinois has expanded Election Day by extending by 14 days the date for receipt and counting of vote-by-mail ballots,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit takes aim at changes Illinois’ Democrat-dominated legislature, with Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, made to state election laws in 2020. Under that new law, the state for the first time opened the vote-by-mail system to all voters, not just those voting absentee.
The new system rewrote the voting rulings and processes in Illinois.
Republicans have alleged from the start that the new system creates myriad new opportunities for powerful political parties and organizations to cheat in elections.
They have particularly criticized the provision in the law that requires election officials to count all ballots received by mail up to two weeks after Election Day. It applies even to ballots which received no postmark, so long as the ballots purport to have been dated on or before Election Day.
While the state is free to set rules for voting for state and local offices, the plaintiffs said the state cannot simply extend the deadline for receiving ballots beyond Election Day for federal offices, potentially allowing hundreds of thousands of otherwise invalid votes to be cast. They said this “dilutes” the value of ballots cast by voters on or before Election Day, in accordance with federal law.
The state has not yet responded to the lawsuit. A judge has set a July 8 deadline for that response. A status hearing has been set for August, as well.
In the meantime, however, the Illinois Democratic Party has asked for the chance to also assail the Republicans’ claims in court.
They said they believed the Republicans’ legal claims imperil the ability of Illinoisans, and Democrats, in particular, from casting ballots in the fall’s general election, leaving them subject to the U.S. Postal Service to deliver their ballots in a timely fashion.
“Plaintiffs seek an injunction preventing Illinois from counting any mail-in ballots after ‘election day,’ regardless of when they are postmarked or dated,” the Democrats wrote in their motion. “Such an injunction would subject the counting of mail-in ballots – including those of Democratic voters – to circumstances entirely outside the voter’s control. It would condition the counting of votes upon the delivery timelines of the U.S. Postal Service, leading to the disenfranchisement of many voters through no fault of their own.”
The Democrats said this should allow them to represent their vote-by-mail voters in the proceedings.
They conceded the state will argue Illinois law and vote counting procedures don’t conflict with federal law, as Republicans allege.
But they said the state will not represent the interests of Democrats in seeking to preserve the law and vote counting process, as it currently exists, as well as the Democratic Party itself can.
The Democratic Party of Illinois is represented by attorneys Coral A. Negron, of Jenner & Block, of Washington, D.C.; and Elisabeth A. Frost, Maya Sequeira, Ricard A. Medina and Abha Khanna, of Elias Law Group, of Washington, D.C., and Seattle.
The Republican plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Christine Svenson, of Svenson Law Offices, of Chicago; and T. Russell Nobile, Paul J. Orfanedes, Robert D. Popper and Eric W. Lee, of conservative activist organization, Judicial Watch, of Washington, D.C., and Gulfport, Mississippi.