Bucks County Commissioners openly defied the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday by moving to count provisional ballots missing a signature as Democrats and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) challenge Senator-elect Dave McCormick’s (R-PA) election victory.
Bucks County Board of Commissioners Chair Robert J. Harvie Jr. (D) and Vice Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia (D) decided to count provisional ballots that were missing a signature in one of two places, which officials call “block two” and “block four.” The third commissioner, Gene DiGirolamo (R), was the lone dissenting voice to oppose the Democrats’ challenge to count the ballots.
Harvie Jr. and Ellis-Marseglia’s decision to count the ballots comes despite a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling from just months ago which determined that provisional ballots missing a signature should not be counted.
In that case–which featured challenges from Republican primary candidates for the 117th District in the Pennsylvania State House, Jaime Walsh and Mike Cabell–the court ruled that voters must sign a provisional ballot envelope for it to count.
According to Section 3050(a.4) of the election code, highlighted in the court’s decision, those voting via provisional ballot must also submit a signed affidavit.
After Deputy County Solicitor Daniel Grieser advised them that “unless it’s signed by the voter in two places… we shouldn’t count these,” Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie Jr decided to count the votes missing one signature anyway.
As the county has some ballots missing two signatures and others missing signatures in either “block two” or “block four,” DiGirolamo, moments before the motion to count the votes passed, moved to reject all three types of ballots missing signatures through a single motion, grouping them all together.
That motion failed with his colleagues, but before it did, Ellis-Marseglia shockingly said she did not value court precedent and touted her indifference regarding whether or not she was breaking the law in her official capacity by ignoring the recent state Supreme Court ruling.
“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country, and people violate laws anytime they want,” she said. “So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”
“And there is nothing more important than counting votes, and I’ll take it all the way,” she added.
Ellis-Marseglia went on to imply that she refused to listen to the county solicitors’ advice because she wanted to make this a court issue again.
“With all due respect, our law department’s goal is to stay out of any kind of court because they’re supposed to do that, but we might, some of us might want them to go to court,” she laughed.
Grieser said he believed “the law department’s advice has been consistent, at least since I’ve been here, to follow the current state of the law.”
The three types of ballots in question were ultimately voted on individually. This led to Harvie Jr. and Ellis-Marseglia accepting Democrats’ challenges on ballots where one signature was missing but rejecting challenges where both signatures were absent.
Walter Zimolong, the counsel for Republicans and McCormick, zoned in on the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Walsh case while arguing before the board ahead of the motion.
“What the Supreme Court said was there is a clear mandate in Section 3050 (a)(4)of the election code that says the voter has to sign in both places, and it very clearly says, what happens, that ballot shall not count,” Zimolong said.
The Bucks County Republican Party announced Thursday afternoon that its attorneys are working with counterparts from the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Pennsylvania Republican Party (PAGOP) “to address this matter.”
The Bucks County Courier Times reported Thursday that McCormick is suing the county’s Board of Elections for allegedly accepting “more than 400 mail-in ballots that were misdated or undated.” It is unclear if this lawsuit encompasses the board’s defiance of the Supreme Court ruling from months ago regarding rejecting ballots missing a signature.
The Board’s decision comes as Casey and Democrats are challenging the Senate race results, despite the Associated Press calling the race for McCormick last Wednesday. The New York Times’s latest results as of Thursday night showed McCormick, who has already staked out his office in the U.S. Capitol, leading by 24,154 votes. The race is headed for a recount.
