Pennsylvania Democrats openly admit to counting illegal ballots in McCormick-Casey race
Democratic officials in some blue counties openly admit to counting ballots that are disqualified in violation of state law and court order.
The Associated Press declared the race between Republican Senator-elect Dave McCormick and incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey. McCormick currently has a lead of 26,000 votes over Casey. Casey, however, has refused to concede the race and insists that all votes be counted. Pennsylvania law requires a recount if the margin is within one percentage point.
The question that is most important to answer, however, is: Which votes should be counted. Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided before the election to exclude mail ballots that did not have required signatures and dates. Democrat officials in Philadelphia, Bucks, Centre, and Montgomery counties, and the surrounding areas, are disregarding this court order.
“I think that we all know that the precedent of a court no longer matters in this country,” Bucks County commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia said, a Democrat. She was speaking as she and fellow Democrats voted Thursday to reject a GOP-led appeal to disqualify ballots.
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People can violate laws whenever they like. If I break this law, I do it because I want the court to take notice. “There’s nothing more crucial than counting votes.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that officials estimate there are less than 80,000 provisional votes left to count across the Keystone State. This is less than 2 percent of the total vote. Casey’s chances of making up the deficit are slim, but his lawyers and McCormicks have clashed repeatedly at county commissioners meetings this week. Local officials debated whether or not to count small numbers of ballots.
Democrats claim they act in good faith when they believe that rejecting someone’s vote due to a clerical mistake violates their constitutional right.
Montgomery County officials, for instance, debated for about 30 minutes whether 180 provisional votes without the secrecy envelopes were to be counted. The Inquirer reported several of these ballots came from the same precincts. This suggests an error by poll workers.
Neil Makhija, Democratic Board Chair Neil Makhija, voted in favor of accepting the ballots to ensure that voters were not disenfranchised. Other members of the board – including a Democrat and a Republican – voted to reject these ballots based on the advice from county attorneys, who said that the law clearly stated they shouldn’t be counted.
Makhija stated during the meeting on Thursday that “we’re talking constitutional rights, and I can’t take an action that throws out someone’s validly cast ballot, or else, over an issue we know… is irrelevant.” The board voted in the end to count all 501 contested votes.
In Bucks, Chester, and Delaware Counties there have been similar disputes over hundreds votes.
Separately there are ongoing lawsuits over mail ballots that have an incorrect date or ones with an undated date. Local Democratic officials say that an incorrect date shouldn’t be enough to disqualify someone from voting. The lower courts agreed, but Pennsylvania’s high court determined that the law required correct dates to count mail ballots.
McCormick and the Republican National Committee asked Pennsylvania Supreme Court to confirm its decision of Nov. 1, to prevent Democrats from including undelivered mail ballots into their final tallies. The Casey campaign, along with the Pennsylvania Department of State, have responded by filing legal motions to argue that counties should not be interfered with and that the high courts need not get involved as challenges make their way through the appeals process.
Republicans have reacted angrily to the open defiance of precedents set by courts.
Let’s be clear: Democrats in Pennsylvania have been trying to break the laws by counting illegal ballots. “They are doing this to steal a Senate seat,” Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley wrote in an article on X.
He said that the RNC had filed four lawsuits to contest county decisions regarding undated ballots. McCormick has vowed to fight for “as long as it takes” to uphold his victory.
Whatley stated, “This is exactly the kind of left-wing interference in elections that undermines voter trust.”
Democrats have defended themselves and pointed out McCormick’s own argument to count contested votes when he was trailing celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet OZ in the Republican primary of 2022 for U.S. Senate.
McCormick told the judge in that case that Pennsylvania’s election laws are meant to allow people to vote and not to “play games of “gotcha” with them.”
There could be thousands of ballots in the state with incorrect or missing dates on their return envelopes, but most counties are not counting them.
The state has mandated that the recount be completed by 12 noon on November 26. Officials say they don’t expect the process will change the result of the race more than by a few hundreds votes.
McCormick, Casey, and other members of the Republican majority were all in Washington, D.C., during this past week. Casey took part in Senate business, cast votes and participated on the Senate floor. McCormick was at new member orientation.
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