The Supreme Court has just made it far more likely that laws allowing the counting of late-arriving mail-in ballots for up to two weeks will be thrown out.

Illinois law allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received up to two weeks later. More than a dozen states have similar laws.

The Supremes ruled yesterday by 7 to 2 that Rep. Mike Bost, an Illinois Republican, has the legal right to challenge his state’s law, even though it didn’t affect the outcome of his race.

Later this spring will come the main event. The Supreme Court will consider the broader issue of whether states can continue to count late-arriving mail ballots.

The Bost decision is a big win for Judicial Watch, which argued the case, and those who think that election rules should be clearly settled in advance of the election.

One of those rules that needs to be restored is reasonable anti-fraud limits to mail-in ballots. A presidential commission concluded that mail in ballots are the tool of choice for fraudsters, are often cast before candidates make their final arguments this undermining the federal statute requiring a single, uniform Election Day.

Illinois clearly has overstepped its authority. In 2020 alone, the state received 4.4% of the votes it counted in the two weeks AFTER Election Day. Allowing late ballots to be counted extends Election Day for weeks and is an open invitation to fraud.