As a contentious Pennsylvania Senate race races towards a $1 million recount, Democratic officials in several blue counties are counting disqualified votes in defiance of state law and court orders. He openly admits that.
The Associated Press is calling the race for Republican U.S. Sen.-elect Dave McCormick, who currently has a 26,000-vote lead over the Democratic incumbent. But Mr. Casey refused to budge, insisting that every vote be counted. A close margin (within 1 percentage point) triggered an automatic recount under Pennsylvania law.
But the key question is which votes should be counted? Before the election, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots missing officially required signatures and dates should not be included in the official results. But Democratic officials in Philadelphia and surrounding counties of Bucks, Center and Montgomery are ignoring the court order.
“We all know that court precedent no longer matters in this country,” Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis Marseglia, a Democrat, said Thursday in voting to reject Republican-led ballot challenges. I think there is,” he said. He should be disqualified.
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Republican Sen.-elect Dave McCormick (left) and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania). (Nathan Posner/Anadolu, Getty Images, left; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, right.)
“People break the law whenever they want. So for me, I break this law because I want the courts to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting the votes. there is no.”
Officials estimate fewer than 80,000 provisional ballots remain to be counted across the Keystone State, accounting for less than 2 percent of the vote, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Although it is unlikely that Mr. Casey will be able to make up the deficit, Mr. Casey’s attorney and Mr. McCormick’s attorney repeatedly said this at county commission meetings this week as local officials debate whether to count the small number of ballots. There is a conflict.
Democrats say they are acting in good faith and believe denying someone a vote based on a clerical error violates their constitutional rights.
In Montgomery County, for example, officials deliberated for 30 minutes over whether to count about 180 provisional ballots without secrecy envelopes. The Inquirer reported that some of these votes were from the same precinct, suggesting mistakes by poll workers.
Democratic Party Chairman Neil Makhija voted to accept the ballots so voters would not be disenfranchised. But other commissioners, including one Democrat and one Republican, rejected the ballots on the advice of the county attorney, who determined that the law clearly states that the ballots should not be counted. I voted for.
“We are talking about constitutional rights and we cannot act to throw out someone’s validly cast vote on an issue that we know is not important,” Makhija said at Thursday’s meeting. . The board ultimately decided to tally a total of 501 contested votes.
Similar disputes over hundreds of votes are playing out in Bucks, Chester and Delaware counties.
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Mr. Trump (left) listens to a speech by U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick during a campaign rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 2024. (ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
Separate lawsuits are underway over undated mail-in ballots and mail-in ballots submitted with the wrong date on the outer envelope. Several local Democratic Party officials said incorrect dates should not be grounds for disqualification from voting. Although lower courts have agreed with this reasoning, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has held that the law requires a precise date for counting mail-in ballots.
The McCormick campaign and the Republican National Committee asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reaffirm a Nov. 1 decision that blocked Democrats from including undated mail-in ballots in the final tally. Casey’s campaign and the Pennsylvania Department of State countered with legal motions, arguing that counties should be left alone and there was no need for the high court to intervene as the challenge progressed through the appeals process.
Republicans have denounced the blatant defiance of legal precedent.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said: “Let’s be clear about what’s going on here: Democrats in Pennsylvania are brazenly trying to break the law by counting illegal ballots. They’re doing this because they want to steal a Senate seat,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley wrote to X.
He said the RNC has filed four lawsuits challenging county decisions regarding undated ballots and vowed to “fight as long as necessary” to ensure McCormick’s victory is upheld.
“This is truly left-wing election interference that undermines voter confidence,” Whatley said.
Fetterman defends Casey McCormick’s count. Dins Kali Lake
Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey addresses supporters before former President Barack Obama speaks at a 2018 statewide campaign rally for Democratic candidates in Philadelphia. (Mark Makera/Getty Images)
Democrats defended their actions, pointing out that McCormick himself had insisted on counting contested votes when he ran behind prominent heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz in the 2022 Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
In the case, McCormick’s attorney told a state judge that the purpose of Pennsylvania election law is to get people to vote, “not to play a game of ‘bargain’ with people.”
Most counties have yet to begin counting, but there could be thousands of mail-in ballots in the state with incorrectly dated or incomplete return envelopes.
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The state-mandated recount must be completed by noon on November 26th. Officials said they don’t expect the process to change the outcome of the race by more than a few hundred votes.
Mr. McCormick and Mr. Casey were in Washington, D.C., this week. Mr. Casey participated in Senate business and voted on the floor, and Mr. McCormick attended new member orientation and met with other members of the new Republican majority to vote for the conference’s leadership.
Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
