DOYLESTOWN, Pennsylvania — The Bucks County commissioner accused of attempting to steal a Pennsylvania Senate seat for Democrats issued an emotional mea culpa Wednesday, saying the “passion” in her heart got the best of her.
Democratic Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia spoke before people who showed up to give her a piece of their minds for openly defying the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to stop counting undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots in the race between Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and his GOP challenger, David McCormick.
“That issue that I spoke on has now gone viral,” she said. “It was genuinely not the best words. I feel terrible about it. I should have been more clear. I will be more clear in the future.”
Ellis-Marseglia’s apology at the start of the meeting largely fell on deaf ears and was met with shouts of “liar” and “resign” from the packed room.
Last week, Ellis-Marseglia stunned Bucks County voters and Republicans across the country when she said, “Precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country.”
“People violate laws any time they want,” she added. “So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There is nothing more important than counting votes.”
Democratic-majority election boards in Montgomery, Philadelphia, and Bucks counties voted to count the ballots that lacked a correct date, echoing some election officials around the state who argued the date tells them nothing about a voter’s eligibility or a ballot’s legitimacy.
Republicans have said the date is a critical element of ballot security.
The matter quickly spiraled into a legal nightmare, with both sides bombarding the judicial system.
On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered counties not to count mail-in ballots without a proper date after several Democratic-led counties already did. The ruling reaffirmed the high court’s earlier decision, keeping possibly thousands of undated or misdated ballots out of the final tally.
Ellis-Marseglia’s comments that she knowingly violated the court ruling quickly ignited the anger and frustration of voters who showed up in droves to Wednesday’s commission hearing.
In fact, so many people showed up to express their dissatisfaction that officials had to set up an overflow hearing room to accommodate them.
One by one, members of the public took turns verbally eviscerating Ellis-Marseglia, calling for her resignation, threatening to sue her, and vowing to vote her out of office.
“I have a message, peacefully, we are coming for your seat in 2027 if you don’t resign today,” Republican activist Scott Presler told Ellis-Marseglia during the public comment portion of the hearing. “I am coming for your seat.”
She replied, “Have at it!”
.@ScottPresler to Democrat Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia: “We are coming for your seat in 2027…”
We refuse to sit idly by while the Democrats try to rig our elections in an attempt to cling to power.
— Scott Presler’s Early Vote Action (@EarlyVoteAction) November 20, 2024
Pressler also blamed Democratic Commissioner Bob Harvie, chairman of the local Board of Elections, for “being complicit” and added that Democratic attorney Marc Elias and his cronies “must be disbarred from practicing law in Pennsylvania and from the misconduct that they did.”
“We are not going to allow Democrats to steal this seat from us,” he said.
Jamie Walker, a Bucks County voter, told the Washington Examiner that she was “happily surprised” by the high turnout and that it was time for residents to hold the commissioners accountable.
“Our county commissioners have been breaking the law for a long time,” she said. “For years, they have been getting away with breaking the law. Finally, people see. All the people here just want their voices heard. They don’t want their votes disenfranchised, and they want our county government to uphold the law.”
Navy veteran Ted Williamson faulted Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) for not firing Ellis-Marseglia for her comments.
“Diane works for Democrat Gov. Shapiro,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Why hasn’t Shapiro stepped up to the plate yet? He could fire her, but he hasn’t done that yet. Why not? Does he condone election fraud? The Supreme Court isn’t running for president in four years, so where is Democrat Gov. Shapiro? Doesn’t he care about the disenfranchised voters of Bucks County?”
Vanessa Fiori, who has lived in Bucks County for close to 30 years, said Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie tried similar tactics in the 2020 election.
“Nothing’s changed except this time, they got caught,” she told the Washington Examiner. “[Ellis-Marseglia] knowingly broke the law, and she was proud of it, and we can’t survive by that. We are wondering about all of our other local elections, are they fair and honest or is she also counting illegal ballots for those? We want them out of office.”
While the verbal slugfest was going on in the Bucks County commissioners’ meeting room, the recount was underway in all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
The Associated Press called the race for McCormick on Nov. 7, saying not enough ballots remained to be counted in areas Casey was winning for him to take the lead. Despite the call, an automatic statewide recount was triggered because McCormick and Casey were within 0.5 percentage points of each other.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
As of midday Wednesday, McCormick leads Casey by 16,579 votes.
The final results of the recount are expected on Nov. 27.