A Democrat Bucks County, Pennsylvania, election official who brazenly defied the state’s Supreme Court by moving to count provisional ballots missing a signature in the U.S. Senate race has apologized for saying that “precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country.”
While the race between incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D) and Dave McCormick (R) was called for McCormick by the Associated Press, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt (R) announced on November 13 that the close margin “triggered a legally required statewide recount.”
The day before, Bucks County Board of Commissioners Vice Chair Robert Harvie Jr. and Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia moved in a 2-1 vote to count 405 misdated or undated mail-in ballots.
On November 14, the day after the recount was announced, Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie Jr. also moved to count provisional ballots missing signatures in one of two vital critical places, despite the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling months ago that provisional ballots missing a signature cannot be counted, Breitbart News reported.
While voting on the matter, Ellis-Marseglia claimed the court’s precedent does not matter:
“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.”
The pair of commissioners voted to count the ballots even after the Bucks County’s legal team advised that “unless it’s signed by the voter in two places… we shouldn’t count these.”
The third commissioner, Gene Digirolamo, moved to not recognize those votes.
After facing backlash for her openly defiant statements against the court, Ellis-Marseglia read out her apology to an angry crowd on Wednesday — the day the recount officially began.
“Last Thursday, when I spoke at the meeting that you’re all here about, the passion in my heart got the best of me, and I apologize again for that. That was a hearing, and we were talking about provisional ballots,” the election official said. “We were specifically talking about the fact that there were certain provisional ballots where a judge of elections did not sign and did not make sure that a voter signed on the outside envelope.”
“To me, it was frustrating and unconscionable that we would have to take away somebody’s vote not because they made a mistake, but because an employee, one of our members … one of the judges of elections didn’t know what to do or forgot or made a mistake. That issue that I spoke on has now gone viral from my comments,” she continued. “It was genuinely not the best words. I would do it all again. I feel terrible about it. I should have been more clear, please, I will be more clear in the future.”
After jeers erupted from the crowd for Ellis-Marseglia to “resign,” she said “bear with me.”
“I remind you all that we all say things that are out of turn, we all made mistakes. I made a mistake! And because I am an election official, I am held to a far higher standard than everybody else,” she continued.
She then prompted loud groans and “boos” from the crowd when she said her controversial comments were made in reference to the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade.
“When I inartfully spoke and used the word precedent when I was talking about provisional ballots, I was referring to the United States Supreme Court, and the precedent that has been lost on many issues including Roe v. Wade.”
“If you would just bear with me for one more minute,” she said to the crowd’s noise, pounding her gavel.
“Unfortunately, I took my frustration out on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, many of whom are friends of mine who I respect, and whose decisions are complicated and difficult and important,” Ellis-Marseglia continued to read. “We are all going to learn lessons from this new media landscape. And most of all, I am. I am a small fish in this big pond. I do not have a megaphone on Twitter or CNN, or I am not a secretary of state, I don’t run a presidential campaign. This is the only opportunity that I have had to set the record straight.”
As of Thursday morning, McCormick is leading in the race by just .24 percent, Fox News reported.
The recount will be concluded by November 26.
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