Bucks County Commissioners Vote to Count Illegal Ballots as Pennsylvania Senate Race Heads for Recount

Posted on Friday, November 15, 2024

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by Outside Contributor

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Bucks County, Pa., commissioners have voted to count ballots lacking proper signatures as the Pennsylvania Senate race heads to an automatic recount due to the razor-thin margin by which GOP Senator-elect Dave McCormick has beaten incumbent Senator Bob Casey.

The 2-1 vote of the commissioners board violates a state Supreme Court ruling issued earlier this year and goes against the advice of the board’s legal team, which advised against counting the 124 illegal ballots.

Board chairman Robert Harviie, Jr. and Diane Marseglia voted to accept ballots that voters signed in one section but not another after Democrats challenged the decision not to count the ballots.

“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country, and people violate laws anytime they want,” Marseglia said. “So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”

Meanwhile, Philadelphia city commissioners voted to count a “relatively small number of undated and incorrectly dated mail ballots.”

“Republicans filed a petition to the PA Supreme Court against all counties to attempt to stop all counties from counting these ballots,” the commissioners said in a statement to Fox News. “They also filed a statutory appeal challenging Bucks County’s decision to count undated and incorrectly dated mail ballots. We are reviewing the filings.”

The Associated Press called the race for McCormick on November 7. McCormick, an Army combat veteran and former hedge fund CEO, led Casey 48.9 percent of the vote to 48.5 percent of the vote, with 99 percent of the vote counted.

With less than 24,000 votes separating the candidates, Casey has declined to concede.

McCormick spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory previously said in a statement to Fox News that Casey does not have the votes to overcome the Republican’s lead.

“Senator-elect McCormick’s lead is insurmountable, which the AP made clear in calling the race,” Gregory said in a statement. “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.”

The race is now subject to an automatic recount, which is triggered by state law if a candidate’s margin of victory is no more than 0.5 percent of total votes cast.

Counties are now tasked with beginning their recount by November 20 and are given until November 27 to report their results. The recount is expected to cost taxpayers more than $1 million.

In four previous automatic recounts triggered under the state law, which passed in 2004, the initial results of the election were ultimately affirmed.

Republicans will retake the Senate regardless of the race’s outcome, though with McCormick’s projected win, the party would control the upper chamber with 53 seats.

While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) at first did not invite McCormick to the new-senator orientation this week, he ultimately relented under pressure from Republican senators.

Brittany Bernstein is a news writer for National Review Online.

Reprinted with Permission from National Review – By Brittany Bernstein

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.