PA Supreme Court Orders Counties to Stop Counting Illegal Ballots
At least three counties attempted to defy the original order and count every ballot.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered counties to stop counting undated and incorrectly dated absentee and mail-in ballots.
This is the second time the state’s Supreme Court has had to tell counties that the election officials cannot include these ballots.
BREAKING: In case over undated/incorrectly dated mail ballots, the PA Supreme Court says the ballots “shall not be counted” for the Nov. 5 election. pic.twitter.com/C167Rb6jX3
— Carter Walker (@ByCarterWalker) November 18, 2024
The majority of the justices demanded Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties to “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…shall not be counted for purposes of the election held on November 5, 2024.”
The order cites Ball v. Chapman: “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.”
Three justices dissented.
The order should mean Republican challenger Dave McCormick will defeat incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey.
The race went into an automatic recount when McCormick’s victory fell below the 0.5% threshold.
The controversy started when a few blue counties defied the original order, given out a few days before the election, and counted the illegal ballots:
“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, said Thursday as she and other Democrats voted to reject a GOP-led challenge to ballots that should be disqualified.
“People violate laws anytime they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes.”
In Montgomery County, election officials chose to count 180 provisional ballots without the secrecy envelopes:
The Inquirer reported that several of these votes came from the same precincts, suggesting an error made by poll workers.
Democratic board chair Neil Makhija voted to accept the ballots so that voters would not be disenfranchised. But other members of the board, including one Democrat and a Republican, voted to reject the ballots on the advice of county attorneys who determined the law clearly states they should not be counted.
“We’re talking about constitutional rights and I cannot take an action to throw out someone’s ballot that is validly cast, otherwise, over an issue that we know … is immaterial,” Makhija said during Thursday’s meeting. The board ultimately voted to count a total of 501 contested ballots.
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Comments
No contempt/bench warrant for the idiot chick in Bucks County, Marseglia, who boasted in the open that she was intentionally defying the court’s order (though she mistakenly called it “precedent” … because she’s a retard)?? Can the court really allow someone to advertise that she is defying the court in order for the court to deal with her and then not have any court actually deal with her as she so richly earned??
Hey, every Democrat gets a second chance.
And a third, fourth, and fifth if they need one.
It took 7 recounts in MN before Al Franken dug up enough votes to beat Norm Coleman. They will go to any extreme.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2010/07/20/al-franken-may-have-won-his-senate-seat-through-voter-fraud
I lived in Bucks for about a third of my life, and loved it (until the traffic finally got to me). I looked up the Commissioner and saw LCSW and the alarms went off. My ex is an LCSW and I used to flip through their (Social Work’s and NASW’s) monthly magazine. They were virulently anti-Trump and pro-woke 7 to 8 years ago. All their columns and editorial pieces were radical. (It was no surprise then that Biden’s – and Pennsylvania’s – Richard “Rachel” Levine was a psychiatrist, a profession closely tied to social work.)
It must be a very special person to be a social worker or psychologist and not toe the line of your profession’s guiding and accrediting professional society, such as the NASW. It highly likely Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia has drunk the LCSW woke and anti-Trump anti-conservative KoolAid. The propaganda is fed to them through a fire hose. Ellis-Marseglia Is probably not retarded, just a typical Xanax or Atavan or Zoloft popping brainwashed “modern woman” educated n the soft sciences.
well, maybe she is retarded, I can’t say either way
What is LCSW?
No contempt order yet, because until now there was no order binding on her that she was violating. Now there is, so she’d better comply or there will be a contempt order, delivered by armed court officers.
I understand, but in this case she went out of her way to express to the court that she was openly defying their order. That must merit some sort of a “contempt-at-large” determination ro something of the sort.
I know that courts have almost unlimited discretion in who they demand presence from and who they hold in contempt, and the cases that I have personally seen have been on nothing more than the whim of the judge (and incorrect in the majority of cases).
She was thumbing her nose at the court, but as I understand it she wasn’t actually defying a specific order directed at her. (For some reason I am unable to access the PA courts site and look at the actual language of the previous order.) She basically said “If you want us not to count these ballots you’ll have to tell us specifically”, so the court has now done just that.
The court made the law clear. She may not have been in contempt, but she certainly violated the law. No punishment for that?
Not unless the law prescribes a penalty. And to achieve even that, she’d have to be charged and tried.
If the law doesn’t prescribe a penalty, then it’s a recommendation and it’s a waste of time. Because recommendations don’t prevent voter fraud. Which I’ve been told for 4 years doesn’t exist, but apparently clearly does.
There is something absolutely wrong with this concept. The PA SC said “Don’t count those ballots”, the Bucks County Commish said “F##k you, I’m counting them” and it’s NOT BINDING??? Why did they even bother with the first ruling then???
‘PA Supreme Court Orders Counties to Stop Counting Illegal Ballots’
This is like saying that instead of punishment for commiting crimes in America our Judicial system you will just have to endure public shame. That’ll teach you!
Seem clear that they’re in contempt of court and should be treated accordingly – but the number of votes so far noted is far short of what will be needed to steal the election from McCormick. I have to take issue with the published stories that claimed that the court “sided with McCormick”. They sided with the law.
My understanding is that they weren’t in contempt until now. If they persist in their resistance then they will be in contempt.
“Seem clear that they’re in contempt of court and should be treated accordingly – but the number of votes so far noted is far short of what will be needed to steal the election from McCormick”
I am tired of the argument that goes, “we did find cheating, but not to any degree where the results would have been affected.” It’s no different from “we did find alcohol in his blood, but not to the extent that he actually damaged anyone or their property.” Who here wouldn’t be going to jail as long as statutory alcohol had been found? Yet Democrat cheaters get pass after pass after pass.
“we did find alcohol in his blood, but not to the extent that he actually damaged anyone or their property.”
But that’s exactly how the law works. If your blood alcohol is below a certain percentage, there is no basis for action.
Most of the PA justices (even the Dems) have realized that if county officials can flip them off without consequence, they might as well clear out their chambers, turn off the lights, and go home.
This is a Federal election. Might there be some Federal violation here that could get some of these clowns put away for some serious time? Of course, this also tends to validate Trump’s view that the 2020 election was stolen. I highly doubt that this illegal vote counting was just now made up.
I bet Elias is prompting the ditz to continue the counting and make it a SCOTUS issue.
‘PA Supreme Court Orders Counties to Stop Counting Illegal Ballots”
This is like saying that instead of punishment for commiting crimes in America our Judicial system you will just have to endure public shame. That’ll teach you!
PS Odd comments platform. Can’t edit.
Doesn’t Dave McCormick have a civil right to an honest counting of the ballots? Bucks County is deliberately defying its SCt., impacting that right, and as it is a federal seat, federal law applies. AG Matt Gaetz would do that.
Talks cheap lock someone up.
Succinct.
This is the sort of thing where ‘tar & feathers’ used to come into play.
It’s a woman, so traditionally the clippers come out instead.
Yes. And applied on the way to Jail for committing treason!
Goes to show blatant cheating is their path to win.
I don’t appreciate my vote being canceled out by fraud.
“ Governor Josh Shapiro, who called J6 an insurrection and is the front-runner for the 2028 nomination, has sat by and allowed this lawless assault on democracy to go on.”
I don’t suppose any law enforcement agencies will conduct an 0600 raid on Ms. Diane Ellis-Marseglia at her home. I understand that treatment is reserved for conservatives.
What if ;they don’t stop counting? There doesn’t seem to be any legal force available to stop them, just (unlikely) potential punishment after the election has been successfully stolen.
Jail time is the only way to stop it
You mean if the elections commissioners continue with their blatantly illegal effort to corrupt the election process of their County? Seems easy enough, sue to have those 3 Counties returns thrown out entirely for all election contests. Alternatively once folks choose the path of going rouge and ignoring particular statutes b/c they find them inconvenient it would be hypocritical to whine if others decide to ignore statutes they find constraining.
And we all know Democrats will do anything to keep from being seen as hypocritical.
So long as they can keep themselves from ending up as the captive audience for K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the 70s it’ll probably work itself out.
Maybe some citizens should decide to ignore the statutes prohibiting a brutal ass kicking.
You already ordered them once, and they ignored it. So your solution is… order them again?
Democrats have realized there are ZERO CONSEQUENCES for blatantly illegal behavior. The only ‘consequence’ is the court tells them they have to abide by the law.
I’m so sick of this weak nonsense.
“Strongly Worded Letter (With Oak Leaf Clusters)”
Hysterical that the keystone state has become the keystone kops… And no one pays attention to them… Cause the demon-o-crats have nothing to do just say: stop…
Order the secty of the state to stop the recount and declare a winner
This is outright election fraud and every single one of those illegal ballots should be a separate count. Those involved should never see family friends or daylight ever again
They already had a court decision saying the same damn thing. They knew what they were doing was wrong. Every single one of them should die in darkness never seeing the sun again. I’m tired of this crap
Yes, but now they have an order.
I’m still unable, for some reason, to access the PA Courts site and see the text of the original decision for myself.
https://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/136MM2024pco%20-%20106152930288600382.pdf?cb=1
Note that the counties’ claim (echoed by partisan war monger Gov. Shapiro) that there was no clarity on the law in PA was soundly smacked down by the PA Supreme Court which ordered that the counties “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”.
So a law saying they can’t do it is not enough and a ruling upholding that law saying they can’t do it isn’t enough– they have to have the PASC specifically order them to stop breaking the law before they have to stop?
You Democrats have really weird ideas about how law works.
Clearly, the problem of people not following the law was a lack of a law requiring them to do so.
We should pass a “follow the law” law to compel compliance with the law.
How do we know they even bothered to segregate the contested ballots? Throwing them in with good ballots and daring the court to throw out the election (which they never do) is a common stratagem in these cases.