Pennsylvania Democrats are openly defying a judge’s orders ahead of a recount in the state’s senate race in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to deliver victory to incumbent Senator Bob Casey.
Casey has yet to concede to Republican Dave McCormick, who was winning by more than 26,000 votes as of Thursday, with 99% of the vote counted. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court blocked an effort to count mail-in ballots with incorrect or missing dates on the outer envelopes. But that hasn’t stopped Democrats in the Bucks County Office of Commissioners from pushing for exactly that.
On Thursday, Gene DiGirolamo, the sole Republican on the three-person panel, introduced a motion to reject the attempt to count what the GOP called “noncompliant” ballots. In response, Democrat Diane Marseglia, the chair of the commission, dismissed the proposal out of hand.
“Not going to second that, mostly because I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter in this country and people violate laws any time they want,” she said. “So for me, if I violate this law it’s because I want the court to pay attention to it.”
“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 on this,” Marseglia said in response.
“I think the law department’s advice has been consistent, at least since I’ve been here: to follow the current state of the law,” Bucks County Deputy Solicitor Daniel Grieser responded. “And I know that that’s changed in the last three years. But the current state of the law in this area is that these, y’know, unless it’s signed by the voter in two places, that we shouldn’t count these. That’s the current state of the law. And that’s been consistently our advice is to follow the law at the time.”
Marseglia and the second Democrat on the commission, Robert Harvie, voted to count the disqualified ballots.
They also discussed how in 2020 they counted ballots that only had one signature, rather than two, which is now illegal. pic.twitter.com/wkKuGfR3Ei
— Meg Brock (@MegEBrock) November 14, 2024
Republicans have asked a Bucks County Common Pleas judge to reverse the Bucks County Board of Commissioners decision. “The board’s baffling decision not to enforce the date requirement and to count noncompliant ballots thus directly contravenes binding Pennsylvania law,” the GOP’s appeal of the Board’s decision stated.
“As of 4 p.m. on Thursday, Casey received 48.53% of the vote with 3,359,086 votes and McCormick had 48.90% with 3,385,115,” CBS News reported, adding, “Counties must begin the recount by Nov. 20, the announcement says. Counties must finish the recount by noon on Nov. 26 and report the results to the secretary of the commonwealth by Nov. 27 at 12 p.m.”
In Pennsylvania, a recount is triggered if a candidate wins by less than a 0.5% margin — but former election officials say a recount “might not change the outcome by more than a few hundred votes,” the AP reported.
“Senator-Elect McCormick’s lead is insurmountable, which the AP made clear in calling the race,” McCormick spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory stated. “A recount will be a waste of time and taxpayer money, but it is Senator Casey’s prerogative. Senator-Elect McCormick knows what it’s like to lose an election and is sure Senator Casey will eventually reach the right conclusion.”
