Dem. PA election official now sorry for her comments regarding illegal votes as recount begins

Not Jill Biden

A Democrat election official in Pennsylvania claimed that court precedent "doesn't matter in this country" and that she was going to count the illegal votes of non-citizens in the state for the U.S. Senate race as the recount begins. 

In a meeting last week, Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat [of course] voted to count provisional ballots that were missing one of two required voter signatures, which is illegal and she was knew this after being told by a county attorney that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had previously ruled that the ballots cannot be counted.

David McCormick

"We all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country and people violate laws any time they want," Ellis-Marseglia said in a viral clip on social media. "So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it. There is nothing more important than counting votes."

Citizen of PA were livid and she faced them at a packed meeting where she tried to hang onto her job and read out an apology on Wednesday while people called out for her to resign.

"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. 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. 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."

She claimed that her reference to court precedent related to the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v Wade – a bs claim that drew loud groans from the crowd. 

"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. 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."

The public booed her and loudly groaned as she pounded her gavel and said,  "If you would just bear with me for one more minute!" She continued: 

"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. 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."

Ellis-Marseglia claimed she received messages from hundreds of people, and "all of them involved horrible, horrible expletives," and many of them included death threats against her and her family, she maintained. Whether or not this is true is unclear.

Bob Casey

When Ellis-Marseglia first spoke, conservatives blasted her for her threatening to break the law. 

Pennsylvania's state Supreme Court on Monday weighed in on a flashpoint amid ongoing vote counting in the U.S. Senate election between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick, ordering counties not to count mail-in ballots that lack a correct handwritten date on the return envelope. Casey has refused to concede the race, which The Associated Press called in favor of McCormick earlier this month, Fox News reported.

Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) said a lack of legal clarity regarding the ballots and how they're to be counted, puts county officials in a tenuous position where they were "damned if they did and damned if they didn’t — likely facing legal action no matter which decision they made on counting."

McCormick currently leads by .24% as of Thursday morning, according to Pennsylvania's election results website. A recount is triggered under state law by a margin of .5% or lower. The statewide recount began Wednesday morning. It must conclude by Nov. 26.

May the force be with McCormick.

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