The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is ordering election boards throughout the state to stop counting illegal ballots. The ruling was issued Monday but officials, especially in Bucks County, are still counting them. Both the RNC and PA Republicans brought a lawsuit against all 67 counties of the state. Sen. Bob Casey refuses to concede to Sen. elect Dave McCormick even though the race was called.
The court said to stop
Part of the ruling read,
“The Court hereby ASSUMES its King’s Bench authority over the instant Application, see 42 Pa.C.S. § 502, only to DIRECT that all Respondents, including the Boards of Elections in Bucks County, Montgomery County, and Philadelphia County, SHALL COMPLY with the prior rulings of this Court in which we have clarified that mail-in and absentee ballots that fail to comply with the requirements of the Pennsylvania Election Code, see 25 P.S. §§ 3146.6(a), 3150.16(a), SHALL NOT BE COUNTED for purposes of the election held on November 5, 2024.”
McCormick holds about a 17,000 vote lead over Casey. The Bucks County commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and chair Robert Harvie Jr. voted 2-1 to count incorrectly dated mail in ballots Nov. 12.
Ignore the court
The appeal said, “The Board did so even though its legal advisers recommended rejecting the ballots ‘based on the current state of the law.’” Bucks, Montgomery, Centre and Philadelphia are all ignoring the law. Bucks and Montgomery counties are the most heavily Democratic in the state.
She was warned about the lawsuit. Ellis-Marseglia said, “I just can’t vote to reject [these ballots]. I just can’t.” McCormick’s attorney Walter Zimolong said the “Board violated the Election Code’s mandatory date requirement and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s repeated orders holding that the date requirement must be enforced.”
Officials defying the court
Both Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie Jr also moved to count provisional ballots missing signatures on Nov. 14 even though the court said they were illegal. Ellis-Marseglia brazenly said she didn’t value the court’s ruling and didn’t care. “I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country, and people violate laws anytime they want. So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Kevin Brobson put out a statement accompanying the court order on Monday. It needed “to disabuse local elections officials of the notion that they have the authority to ignore Election Code provisions that they believe are unconstitutional. Indeed, this Court has held that administrative agencies, like county boards of elections, lack the authority to declare unconstitutional the very statutes from which they derive their existence and which they are charged to enforce.”
