The Democrats can’t believe how badly they lost on election night. Now they want revenge.
That’s why the Democrats are disobeying the Supreme Court to count illegal ballots.
Republicans File Lawsuits in Pennsylvania Senate Race as Recount Looms
Republicans in Pennsylvania took legal action Thursday amid the ongoing vote counting in the U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick. The two campaigns are preparing for a potential recount as they push counties for favorable decisions on how to count certain ballots.
At the heart of the legal battles are lawsuits filed by the GOP that seek to prevent counties from counting mail-in ballots where the voter either failed to write a date on the return envelope or wrote an incorrect date. These suits could set the stage for a major legal fight as the race nears a state-mandated recount, triggered by the narrow margin between the two candidates.
The Associated Press called the race for McCormick last week, reporting that the remaining uncounted ballots in areas where Casey had strong support were unlikely to close the gap. As of Thursday, McCormick led by about 26,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million ballots counted. That margin is within the 0.5% threshold required under Pennsylvania law to trigger an automatic statewide recount.
The national and state Republican parties have filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, urging it to bar counties from counting the disputed ballots. The GOP argues that allowing these ballots to be counted violates both the court’s recent orders and the precedent set in upholding the state’s voter laws.
Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Lawrence Tabas decried the ongoing ballot counting process, saying in a statement, “What’s taking place in these counties is absolute lawlessness.”
🚨🚨🚨#BucksCounty Democrat Commissioners violate the rule of law and ignore PA Supreme Court ruling!
Democrat Commissioners Diane Marseglia and Bob Harvie voted today to count illegal ballots, against PA Supreme Court ruling, in an attempt to aid former Senator Bob Casey.… pic.twitter.com/qAdFlVchmh
— Bucks GOP (@BucksGOP) November 14, 2024
The counties in question—Bucks County, Centre County, and Philadelphia—are controlled by Democratic-majority election boards, which voted to count the ballots despite the potential issues with dates on the return envelopes. Historically, Democrats have been more supportive of counting ballots that might otherwise be discarded due to clerical errors in compliance with state law.
Bucks County Commissioner Robert Harvie, a Democrat, defended his county’s decision, stating, “We’re going to get sued either way, I’d rather be on the side of counting ballots than not counting them.” Bucks County election officials are specifically facing a lawsuit from McCormick’s campaign and the GOP, challenging the decision to count 405 such ballots.
The controversy stands in contrast to McCormick’s position during the 2022 Republican primary, when he filed a similar legal challenge in an effort to close the vote gap with Mehmet Oz. In that case, McCormick’s campaign fought to exclude ballots with similar errors.
Lower courts have generally ruled that it is unconstitutional or illegal to discard such ballots. However, higher courts, including the state Supreme Court, have sided with the GOP in recent rulings, blocking the counting of certain disputed ballots.
Meanwhile, counties across Pennsylvania have been working to process tens of thousands of provisional ballots. These ballots are typically cast when voters are unable to verify their eligibility at the polling place on Election Day. Lawyers representing both Casey and McCormick, as well as state parties, have filed challenges against some of the provisional ballots.
On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican and top election official under Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, announced that the preliminary results had triggered an automatic recount. According to Schmidt, over 80,000 provisional, mail-in, and absentee ballots had yet to be counted. The recount must be completed by noon on November 26, with election officials expected to process the ballots by running them through high-speed scanners. While recounts are typically not expected to drastically alter the outcome, former election officials have suggested the final tally might shift by only a few hundred votes.
As the recount process begins, both candidates are engaged in other duties in Washington. Senator Casey is attending official Senate sessions, casting votes on the Senate floor, while McCormick is participating in Senate orientation and meeting with fellow Republicans to discuss leadership following the party’s control of the Senate in last week’s election.
With the legal battles continuing and the recount on the horizon, the outcome of Pennsylvania’s Senate race remains in limbo, and both sides are preparing for the possibility of further legal challenges as the final votes are tallied.
The Federalist Wire will be updating our readers on any major developments in these election legal cases.
