Despite the state supreme court’s pre-election directives to not count undated or misdated ballots, Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro claimed that Democratic officials attempted to tally defective ballots in the state due to a lack of legal clarity.
Shapiro made the announcement on Monday following the state supreme court’s decision that absentee and mail-in ballots that do not adhere to the state election code will not be counted in the recount of the Senate race between Republican Senator-elect Dave McCormick and defeated Democratic Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey. According to Shapiro, officials at the county level counted defective ballots in breach of state law because of a purported lack of legal clarity.
“Counties were faced with a lack of legal clarity surrounding undated mail-in ballots that caused significant confusion and put counties in a challenging legal position as they continued to count ballots from the 2024 general election and a mandatory statewide recount in the U.S. Senate race,” Shapiro said in his statement. Since my predecessor and I have frequently urged lawmakers to provide more clarity on mail-in voting, the courts have been left to handle this matter since some legislative actors have refused to take action on important election reforms.
The message went on to say that because of this ambiguity, county officials in each of our 67 counties were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t, and they would probably face legal action whatever of the decision they made on counting.
According to The New York Times, authorities around the state attempted to interpret election law for themselves and count the flawed ballots despite the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s prior announcement that undated or misdated ballots would be disqualified.
Notably, when she sought to count the county’s defective ballots on Thursday, Democrat Diane Ellis-Marseglia, the county commissioner for Bucks County, publicly expressed her disapproval of the current judicial precedent. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Ellis-Marseglia later expressed regret for the effects of her remarks on Thursday and accused others of misinterpreting a poorly crafted statement on her behalf.
According to the Inquirer, attempts were also made to tally ballots that were deemed defective in Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Centre counties in addition to Bucks County.
As we proceed, I want to be clear: Shapiro stated in his statement that it is reckless and undermines confidence in our election process to imply that our laws are unimportant or can be disregarded. In this Commonwealth, the rule of law is important, and as I have always stated, it is imperative that counties and officials from both parties uphold it in both their words and deeds.
In an opinion piece published just hours before the state supreme court reiterated that ballots with errors would not be tallied in the 2024 elections, Casey supported counting defective ballots. According to the Associated Press, which has referred to the race for McCormick, as of Tuesday morning, McCormick leads Casey by almost 17,000 votes.
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