Categories
election law partisanship

Pennsylvania Steal

Paul Jacob on the contested Pennsylvania senatorial election.

We must hope that a Democratic effort in Pennsylvania to steal the election for U.S. senator has indeed been thwarted. A new state supreme court ruling with its concurring opinions is definitive.

Problem is, a previous ruling from the same court had already been definitive.

Yet not only have election officials been counting unsigned or undated or improperly dated mail-​in ballots in an effort to rescue incumbent Democrat Bob Casey from defeat at the hands of his Republican challenger, Dave McCormick, via a rejiggering recount, at least some of the election officials breaking the law weren’t even bothering to try to obscure the effort with an “Aw geez, this is perfectly compatible with a reasonable interpretation of election rules and the supreme court ruling” fig leaf.

In Bucks County, county commissioners voted 2 – 1 to proceed with an attempted election-​stealing despite the advice of their own counsel.

Bad as this is, get this: Diane Ellis-​Marseglia, one of the two Democratic commissioners who determined that it was okay to count bad ballots, announced that she didn’t care about whether she was violating the law. Even though her job is to apply it, not to flout it with revolutionary (or corrupt insider) fervor.

“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t 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 to it.”

Attention has been paid. We hope it’s enough.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


PDF for printing

Illustration created with Midjourney and Firefly

See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)

See recent popular posts

3 replies on “Pennsylvania Steal”

“The majority of counties in Pennsylvania, including counties that lean both Democratic and Republican, allow “curing” for mail ballots when the voter has made a mistake when completing the packet. At least 36 counties give voters the opportunity to cure mail ballots with disqualifying errors, such as a mistake on the declaration envelope or a missing secrecy envelope. 

An additional ten counties do not have in-​office curing but do enter accurate ballot statuses into the Pennsylvania Department of State’s SURE system. Those voters are then notified about their option to vote a provisional ballot at their precinct on Election Day in order to preserve their right to vote. 

At least 16 counties don’t give voters any notice or opportunity to cure their mail ballots, and the policies of the remaining five counties are unknown at this time.”

Business as usual. Any election where Democrats trail necessitates the manufacture of ‘valid’ ballots. Yet they’re the ones who talk incessantly about a ‘danger to our democracy’. As when Al Franken ‘won’ in Minnesota, Dems will continue to ‘find’ valid ballots until they win.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *