Bost v. Illinois Bd. of Elections · ¶7

The District Court held that petitioners lacked standing and dismissed the suit. 684 F. Supp. 3d 720 (ND Ill. 2023). Petitioners appealed, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed. 114 F. 4th 634 (2024). The court concluded that the costs to monitor vote counting after election day could not support standing, because those costs would have been voluntarily incurred “to avoid a hypothetical future harm—an election defeat.” Id., at 642. In doing so, the court noted that Congressman Bost had won the last election with 75% of the vote. Ibid. It also rejected petitioners' asserted “ `competitive injury,' ” reasoning that they “do not (and cannot) allege that the majority of the votes that will be received and counted after Election Day will break against them.” Id., at 643. Finally, it dismissed petitioners' asserted injury based on an inaccurate vote tally as unduly “speculative,” because “the…

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