(The Center Square) – The state and national Republican parties told local officials to scrap defective ballots as the U.S. Senate race recount gets underway on Monday.
In a letter to the election boards in Bucks and Montgomery counties, party chairs said “enough is enough” and accused commissioners there of bolstering U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr.’s “election denial” by violating a state Supreme Court ruling.
The tense words come after both counties agreed to count ballots with incorrect or missing dates despite state law deeming such votes invalid.
The 4-3 ruling issued in September reversed a lower court decision that said tossing misdated ballots, as stipulated in state law, was unconstitutional. In the opinion, the majority rejected weighing in because the underlying legal challenge was only filed against two of the state’s 67 counties, Allegheny and Philadelphia.
Since the case’s merits were not litigated, the plaintiffs – including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Interest Law Center – are free to refile the complaint.
During a Nov. 14 election board hearing, Bucks County Commission Chairwoman Diane Ellis-Marseglia reiterated her disagreement with the high court’s decision before voting to count roughly 400 ballots with dating errors.
“I think we all know that precedent by a court does not matter anymore in this country, and people violate laws anytime they want,” she said. “So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention.”
As of Monday, less than 18,000 votes separate Republican challenger Dave McCormick and incumbent Democrat Casey. The narrow margin triggered an automatic recount on Thursday, which counties have until Nov. 26 to finish.
McCormick’s campaign has legally challenged the deficient ballots and asked the high court to reaffirm its September ruling. Tallies currently include ballots with missing or incorrect dates and signatures, pushing Casey ahead of McCormick by 2,250 votes.
Even so, the Republican campaign says there are not enough votes left in the state to overcome the gap. Chief Strategist Mark Harris said Casey’s decision to opt for the recount, estimated to cost $1 million, won’t change things.
Multiple media outlets, including The Associated Press, reached the same conclusion on Nov. 7 when declaring the former hedge fund CEO turned Republican nominee the winner. Casey has since refused to concede and opted for his right to a recount.
The campaign estimates it legally challenged roughly 1,500 undated ballots and a few thousand attributed to unregistered voters. Harris said, despite the utmost confidence in McCormick’s victory, allowing county boards of election to count invalid votes would be akin to “tying four arms behind our backs.”
“Even if they won and upended everything we know about Pennsylvania elections, we would still be leading by a real and significant and unturnable margin,” Harris said. “No matter how they slice it, more people voted for Dave McCormick than Bob Casey.”
President-elect Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris by 267 votes in the county, a narrow upset that signaled the Republican’s broader success across the state.
State law requires mail-in ballots to be signed, dated and returned in a secrecy envelope to be counted. In the 2022 midterm election, roughly 10,000 votes were tossed due to submission errors.
McCormick said after the primary election earlier that same year that invalidating undated or misdated ballots disenfranchised voters. He lost the nomination to Dr. Mehmet Oz by 0.1 percentage points, which was reaffirmed in one of the state’s four automatic recounts completed over the last two decades.
Tiernan Donohue, Casey’s campaign manager, said the high court didn’t rule on the merits of counting undated ballots, rendering McCormick’s reversed position on the matter moot – and hypocritical.
“Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and we will utilize every legal option to oppose McCormick’s voter suppression tactics and ensure these legal votes are counted,” she said.
