by Nick Pope
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Democratic officials trying to count ballots in the state that contained deficiencies did so for a lack of “legal clarity” despite pre-election orders from the state Supreme Court not to count undated or incorrectly dated ballots.
Shapiro made the announcement Monday after the state Supreme Court ruled that mail-in and absentee ballots that do not comply with the state’s election code will not be counted as a Senate race between Pennsylvania’s defeated Democratic senator. Bob Casey and Republican senator-elect Dave McCormick head to tell. Shapiro said the alleged lack of “legal clarity” led county officials to count defective ballots, in violation of state law.
“As counties continued counting 2024 general election ballots and mandatory statewide recounts began in the U.S. Senate race, they faced a lack of legal clarity regarding undated mail-in ballots, resulting in significant confusion and has placed counties in a difficult legal position,” Shapiro said in his statement. “Both my predecessor and I have repeatedly called on lawmakers to provide greater transparency around mail-in voting, and because some legislators have refused to act on key election reforms, the issue has been left to the courts.”
“Given this lack of clarity, county officials in each of our 67 counties were damned if they did, and damned if they didn’t – they likely face legal action regardless of the counting decision they make,” the statement continued.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court clarified before the election that undated or incorrectly dated ballots should be thrown out, but that didn’t stop officials across the state from trying to interpret election law themselves and count ballots with deficiencies. According to to The New York Times.
Specifically, Democratic Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia he declared openly that she was not concerned about existing legal precedent on Thursday, when she began counting defective ballots in the district. Ellis-Marseglia then apologized for the impact of her Thursday comments and blamed others for misinterpreting “an unintentionally worded statement on my part.” According to Down The Philadelphia Inquirer..
In addition to Bucks County, there were also efforts to count defective ballots in Philadelphia, Montgomery and Center counties, According to down Inquirer.
“Moving forward, I want to be clear: any insinuation that our laws can be ignored or don’t matter is irresponsible and undermines faith in our electoral process,” Shapiro said in a statement. “The rule of law matters in the commonwealth, and as I have always said, it is critically important for counties and officials on both sides to respect it in both their rhetoric and their actions.”
Casey approved counting defective ballots in an article published just hours before the state supreme court made clear again that such ballots would not be counted in the 2024 election. The Associated Press, which called the race for McCormick, projects that McCormick leads Casey by about 17,000 votes Tuesday morning.
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Nick Pope is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Governor Josh Shapiro” photo by Governor Josh Shapiro.
