FOX NEWS
Democrat Commissioners Diane Marseglia and Bob Harvie vote to count illegal ballots, against Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, in an attempt to aid former Senator Bob Casey. CREDIT: Bucks Co Board of Elections
As the contested Pennsylvania Senate race barrels towards a $1 million recount, Democratic officials in a few blue counties are openly admitting to counting disqualified ballots in defiance of state law and court orders.
The Associated Press has called the race for Republican Sen.-elect Dave McCormick, who currently holds a 26,000 vote lead over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. But Casey has refused to concede and insisted that every vote be counted. The close margin – within one percentage point – triggered an automatic recount under Pennsylvania law.
Yet the critical question is which votes should be counted? The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled before the election that mail ballots lacking formally required signatures or dates should not be included in official results. However, Democratic officials in Philadelphia and surrounding Bucks, Centre and Montgomery counties are ignoring that court order.
“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, said Thursday as she and other Democrats voted to reject a GOP-led challenge to ballots that should be disqualified.
“People violate laws anytime they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes.”
Officials estimate there are fewer than 80,000 provisional ballots left to be counted across the Keystone State, less than two percent of the vote, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. While the chance that Casey could make up his deficit is small, his attorneys and McCormick’s have repeatedly clashed at county commissioner meetings this week as local officials have debated over whether to count small handfuls of ballots.
Democrats insist they are acting in good faith in believing that rejecting someone’s vote because of a clerical error violates their constitutional rights.
In Montgomery County, for example, officials deliberated for 30 minutes over whether about 180 provisional ballots without secrecy envelopes should be counted. The Inquirer reported that several of these votes came from the same precincts, suggesting an error made by poll workers.
Democratic board chair Neil Makhija voted to accept the ballots so that voters would not be disenfranchised. But other members of the board, including one Democrat and a Republican, voted to reject the ballots on the advice of county attorneys who determined the law clearly states they should not be counted.
“We’re talking about constitutional rights and I cannot take an action to throw out someone’s ballot that is validly cast, otherwise, over an issue that we know … is immaterial,” Makhija said during Thursday’s meeting. The board ultimately voted to count a total of 501 contested ballots.
