Bucks County commissioner addresses public outrage over ballot counting battle

Longtime Democrat Sen. Bob Casey (PA) recently conceded defeat in his race against Republican David McCormick, but not until a long and controversial ballot-counting battle succeeded in dividing residents in Bucks County and its environs.

Amid the heated debate over local officials' attempt to disregard a state Supreme Court ruling and count unsigned ballots, Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia found herself resigned to the fact of the community's anger and dissatisfaction over her stance and faced vociferous calls for her resignation, as Fox News reports.

Controversy erupts

The outrage in Bucks County came to a head when commissioners, including Ellis-Marseglia, voted to accept and count provisionally cast ballots that lacked one of two mandated signatures.

This occurred despite the commissioners receiving guidance from a county lawyer that the state Supreme Court had already determined that those ballots could not legally be included in the vote tally.

In response, Ellis-Marseglia took a defiant tone, declaring, “We all know that precedent by a court doesn't matter anymore in this country and people violate laws any time they want.”

She continued, “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.”

Ellis-Marseglia's regrets

In reaction to what became a mounting backlash over her bombastic stance, Ellis-Marseglia addressed a public meeting on Wednesday with a regretful tone of at least partial contrition.

“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,” she began.

The embattled commissioner continued, “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,” she went on.

Describing her reaction as “not the best words,” and suggesting she should have been more precise in her language, Ellis-Marseglia said she made a mistake, but seemed to blame things such as the “new media landscape” and the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade for her frustration.

Backlash persists

As the Philadelphia Inquirer notes, much rancor remains over the commissioner's actions and subsequent statements, with many still demanding Ellis-Marseglia's resignation and others calling for her criminal prosecution.

Though an official impeachment of the recalcitrant commissioners is theoretically possible but unlikely due to Democrat-heavy composition of the state house, it is clear that Ellis-Marseglia's attempts to contravene the law did not go unnoticed, and officials in similar positions going forward may think twice before doing the same.