Mike Bost should stop working against our American right to vote! He is currently helping front a law suit that seeks to throw out legally cast votes, that arrive after Election Day. State law allows vote by mail ballots to be counted if received within 14 days after Election Day, if they are post marked on or before the final day of voting. Those lacking a post mark and those with illegible post marks may be counted if the voter dated and signed the ballot on or before Election Day.
So, if a voter goes by all the rules, but the Post Office fails to deliver the ballot on time, Mike Bost wants to just chuck out the voter's legitimate ballot. Why? Well, he claims that those mailed in ballots arriving after Election Day (but cast prior to) would “dilute” the other votes. What?
Bost's beef should be with the Post Office (which in his scenario would fail to deliver the votes in a timely manner), not with the voter who has obeyed the rules and cast and mailed their ballot on time. But he (and by extension, the organization he is partnering with, Judicial Watch) is not really concerned with process or timeliness. He's looking for a way to eliminate legitimate votes for his opponent.
Congressman Bost has spent years promoting the idea that he is a great friend to veterans. Apparently, not so much for active duty military personnel voting by mail from overseas.
He claims to the court that counting these legally cast votes would harm him by reducing his margin of victory. He states that election results are the best measure by which to judge his effectiveness as a congressman. No. The best measure of a congressman is his legislative record. Period.
Oddly, in a lawsuit seeking to disenfranchise some voters, Bost asks, “were voters disenfranchised during the Colonial Early Republic, Civil War, Reconstruction and 20th Century eras… ?” Well, now that he brings it up, yes, yes they were. Only landowners could vote in the first years of the Republic. Few blacks, and no slaves, could vote in the Civil War era. No women could vote during Reconstruction. And until the 1965 Voting Rights Act, millions of blacks could still not vote. Many Americans, such as Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and Viola Liuzzo died fighting for universal enfranchisement. Many more, such as C.T. Vivian and John Lewis were beaten.
Bost seeks to muddy the waters by falsely referring to the ballots in question as “unlawful”. They are not. He just wishes they were. Federal law establishes Election Day; these votes have been cast on or prior to Election day and mailed on or prior to Election Day. State law provides that if they arrive within two weeks of Election Day, they be counted. Again, the voter has correctly cast the ballot, and mailed it, on time. They cannot control its delivery. Why does Mike Bost want to take away their right to vote? Why does he assume those votes will be against him?
He doesn't seem to trust the people of southern Illinois. He never holds public town hall meetings. He once explained his fear by comparing those who might question or criticize him at one to the Red Guards of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Really? That's how he thinks of southern Illinoisans? Look in the mirror. Mike Bost doesn't care much for the person you see there. He doesn't care if you have access to high speed internet. Doesn't care if the oil companies price gouge you at the pump and doesn't care if the pharmaceutical companies overcharge you for insulin.
Instead of playing footsie with groups that want to sabotage our right to vote, with law suits from Texas to Pennsylvania and now Illinois, Congressman Bost should do the job we're paying him for.
