Jeff Childers
Jonathan Turley published an op-ed in the Hill yesterday, titled “Bucks County Democrats show again why voters trusted the GOP more on democracy.” Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is still counting votes—votes that Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court said could not be counted. It’s a one-county insurrection.
https://x.com/BoLoudon/status/1857149363140600133
CLIP: Bucks County Board Chair defies the law (0:27).
They’re not even trying to hide it. Bucks County’s hyphenated Democrat Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia shrugged and said, “People violate laws any time they want.”
Diane may, at some future point, regret that rash remark. It’s hard to fathom, especially since I have been repeatedly reassured by Corporate Media that this kind of rogue cheating never ever happens. It’s a wild figment of imaginary conservative conspiracy theory.
Here’s what happened specifically. After a recent motion to adhere to the new Supreme Court ruling, and discard undated and untimely-dated ballots, Ms. Ellis-Marseglia refused to second the motion. She explained it was “mostly because I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country and people violate laws any time they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”
Good luck figuring out what that means. I doubt Diane even knows. I certainly can’t explain why violating a Supreme Court ruling is justified by getting the court to pay attention. She might not get the kind of attention she’s apparently hoping for.
What hangs in the balance is a Senate seat, now occupied by Democrat incumbent Bob Casey who, thanks to Ms. Ellis-Marseglia’s creative counting, is rapidly closing a narrowing gap to reverse the already-declared victory of Republican Dave McCormack.
Meanwhile, and by comparison, CBS affiliate WCCO-Minnesota ran a story Friday headlined, “Hubbard County election judge arrested after accepting unregistered votes, charges say.” Timothy Michael Scouton, 64, was charged with one count of accepting the vote of an unregistered voter, and one count of neglect of duty by an election official. The charges carry a potential ten-year sentence.
Had he been a Republican, Mr. Scouton would surely have been charged with a separate count for every unregistered voter, which the article mentioned was at least six, and was probably many more. But I digress.
Back to Pennsylvania. As you can imagine, a flurry of litigation now surrounds the Bucks County vote counting. Pennsylvania state officials sent Bucks an official letter yesterday, “requesting” that improperly-dated ballots be “segregated” for purposes of the pending lawsuits.
But it isn’t clear to anyone how that will shake out. If Bucks officials are already openly defying a Supreme Court ruling, what will they do with a “request” to segregate ballots? Probably use it for something not appropriate to describe in a family blog.
Ms. Ellis-Marseglia is bold. You have to give her that much. Any number of Republicans still face pending criminal charges for legally organizing alternative slates of electors in 2020. Soon, the DOJ will be under Republican control, and federal election interference crimes, if not insurrection itself, will be on the ballot counting table.
Whatever happens, it’s not a good look for the left, which has spent four years lecturing everyone about the sanctity of election laws, court rulings, and preserving democracy. It will be fascinating to see how this ends.
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PS…I just called Dianne . no answer and no answering maching to leave a message…ha