The Bucks County Commissioners, specifically chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia, recently came under national fire after a controversial comment went viral on social media.
After a mandatory statewide recount was triggered for the U.S. Senate race between Democrat incumbent Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick, the latter of whom led by a 0.2 margin, the commissioners voted 2-1 to count mail-in ballots that were incorrectly dated and provisional ballots that were missing signatures. Marseglia and vice chair Harvie, both Democrats, were for this, and Republican Gene DiGirolamo was against it.
During the vote, Marseglia said, “I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country. And people violate laws any time they want. So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”
A clip of her statement was shared by the Bucks GOP on X in a post that, at the time of this writing, had been viewed 35.6 million times, with an onslaught of criticism from the Republican party ensuing.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who was appointed by President-elect Donald Trump as co-lead of the new Department of Government Efficiency, Trump’s campaign manager Chris LaCivita and more publicly denounced the commissioners’ vote.
Those speaking out also included Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro, who said, “I want to be clear: any insinuation that our laws can be ignored or do not matter is irresponsible and does damage to faith in our electoral process.”
Several days after the viral post, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled, in a 4-3 decision, that Bucks County, as well as others, cannot count “undated and/or misdated absentee and/or mail-in ballots cast in the Nov. 5, 2024 election,” as stated in the official consent order. The ruling also states, “The Election Code commands absentee and mail-in electors to date the declaration that appears upon ballot return envelopes, and failure to comply with that command renders a ballot invalid as a matter of Pennsylvania law.”
Pennsylvania House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) and incoming Republican Leader Jesse Topper (R-Bedford/Fulton) praised the court’s decision. They said, in part, “A law is not confusing or inconsistent merely because people do not like it. The Pennsylvania Election Code unambiguously states that mail-in and absentee ballots must be correctly dated to be valid. Ballots not complying with the Election Code should not be counted. Given this decision … it is clear Sen. Bob Casey should concede the election to Sen.-elect Dave McCormick … ”
According to Marseglia, her comments were taken out of context and misinterpreted. She said in a statement, “I apologize for all the upset and confusion it caused.”
Harvie, Board of Elections chair, addressed claims that he and Marseglia were attempting to sway the election in Casey’s favor: “These claims are unequivocally nonsense. The decisions by the board rendered last week are consistent with its longstanding practice of fighting to protect the rights of registered Bucks County voters who made some immaterial mistake on their ballot envelopes or, even worse, suffered mistakes made by election workers, but who nonetheless cast ballots in an effort to have their vote count. Whatever candidates those ballots do or do not lift to victory is up to the voters, and is not the concern of the board.”
He went on to explain how members of the Board of Commissioners, their families and county staff have been threatened and harassed. “We condemn these pathetic actions in no uncertain terms and have turned over these calls and messages to law enforcement,” Harvie said. “There is no place for that type of behavior in a democracy.”
Additionally, given the fact that the mail-in ballots favored Casey and the provisional ballots favored McCormick, Harvie said, “These numbers make it clear, as has been known by both parties, that these votes were never going to alter the outcome of this race.”
Bucks County Republican elected officials, including state Sen. Frank Farry and state Reps. KC Tomlinson, Joe Hogan and Kristin Marcell, issued a joint statement, outlining how the legislature has worked to address complaints regarding Act 77. Signed into law in 2019 by former Gov. Tom Wolf, this bill allows most voters to vote by mail-in ballot, and have more time to return mail-in and absentee ballots.
“In a previous session, HB1300 passed both the Senate and the House, but was vetoed by Gov. Wolf. This legislation was carefully crafted to enact meaningful changes to our election code by expanding voter rights, adding protections, increase access to voting and reducing burdens that currently exist,” they said. “We have heard the accusations that we do not care about our elections; this couldn’t be further from the truth. We have been working and will continue to work.”
The mandatory statewide recount for the U.S. Senate election was set to begin on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 8 a.m.
