Q&A of the Day – Can the Pennsylvania Officials Counting Illegal Votes Be Arrested?
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Today’s Entry: Brian, simple question if they are counting the votes illegally then why are they not charged with the crime? This is the only way they will stop is when they are held accountable for their illegal activity.
Bottom Line: I agree and unfortunately you’re probably right. As we’re watching an attempted theft of a senate seat in Pennsylvania by Democrat election officials, we’re in unusual and especially dangerous territory. At the time that all legal votes had been tabulated in the Pennsylvania senate race between incumbent Democrat Bob Casey, and Republican challenger Dave McCormick, McCormick was shown with an approximate lead of 26,000 votes. However, since select Democrat-controlled counties began tabulating illegally submitted ballots, that advantage shrunk to 17,430 votes as of today. There appears to be a concerted effort to find enough illegally submitted ballots to steal this senate seat in the light of day. So, let’s dive into what’s happened up to this point and whether there is legal jeopardy for those involved in the illegal vote tabulations.
Prior to Election Day, the Republican Party filed numerous legal challenges in several states seeking to ensure state voting laws were upheld. This was a lesson the party learned following the 2020 elections, in which the party was reacting to votes that had already been tabulated, and often certified, before attempting to gain legal clarity on voting procedures in states where loose interpretations of election law had taken place. Pennsylvania was at the forefront of the GOP’s pre-Election Day efforts.
In the key legal decision that’s in question, the Republican Party argued before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, that consistent with the state’s law, vote-by-mail ballots returned with missing or incorrect dates may not be counted. The court agreed with the GOP’s position and ruled that they not be counted by local election officials. And, at first, those ballots weren’t counted. However, when the final tabulation of lawful votes showed McCormick with a close but decisive win, four local governments voted to tabulate the unlawfully submitted ballots anyway. This included Philadelphia’s city commission and most notably, the Bucks County Commission. Not only did the Democrat majority Bucks County Commission vote to tabulate the illegally submitted ballots, one of the commissions has been particularly vocal about it. Commissioner Diane Marseglia has this to say in flouting the state’s law and the state Supreme Court’s order to comply with it: I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country, and people violate laws anytime they want. So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.
So remarkably we have an elected public official acknowledging that she’s breaking the law in order to attempt to steal a United States senate seat. It’s perhaps the most transparent effort to attempt to steal an election in American history. So, this takes us back to today’s question. Why haven’t those responsible been charged with a crime? It’s a good question and it’s also one that’s not yet come to its conclusion.
Before potential charges may be brought against offending individuals, the crime itself must first take place. While it’s true that multiple local governments voted to break the law, and multiple governments have as of now, tabulated illegal votes into their totals, they’ve yet to certify those results. The senate race in question is currently under a recount that has been ordered to begin no later than this Wednesday and that must be completed by November 27th. At that point, the local governments will be asked to confirm their final vote totals. It’s possible that these local officials rethink their decision to count the unlawful votes prior to certification to the state. If they do, no actual crime will have taken place. If, however, they affirm the unlawful vote totals, they would be in contempt of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. At that point, two things would likely take place. But first an update...
Yesterday the state Supreme Court ruled that the unlawfully tabulated votes are not to be counted in the official totals, perhaps providing the local officials one more opportunity to submit lawful vote totals. Additionally, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, issued this statement following yesterday’s ruling: Any insinuation that our laws can be ignored or do not matter is irresponsible and does damage to faith in our electoral process. At this point, if there still isn’t compliance at the local level, they could hold the officials responsible in contempt of court. It would be up to the Supreme Court to decide what penalties, if any, it might pursue against the offending officials.
While a situation is rare you may have heard of an example of this having played out in Kentucky. Following the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling enabling same-sex marriages federally, a county clerk in Kentucky, Kim Davis, refused to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples citing her religious beliefs. She was found in contempt of court and briefly jailed. She was also ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to the couple she’d refused to grant a marriage license to, in addition to $260,000 in legal fees associated with the case.
So, the story isn’t over yet, and the officials still have the opportunity to choose to do the right and lawful thing. Otherwise, hopefully the state’s supreme court will impose maximum contempt charges against the offenders to not only ensure a legal and proper vote total is submitted for the Pennsylvania senate race, but also so that a message is sent to other would-be offenders and future elections.