A Democratic official in Bucks County, Pennsylvania is facing calls for her arrest following a brazen defense of her vote to defy a court order and count questionable mail-in ballots in the contested U.S. Senate race.
Diane Ellis-Marseglia, one of three commissioners who oversee election proceedings for the suburban county north of Philadelphia, told reporters last week that a ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidating certain absentee ballots “doesn’t matter” and that local election officials should count them anyway. The defiant stance comes as Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) is grappling with a last-ditch recount effort despite trailing Republican Dave McCormick by more than 25,000 votes. “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 social media clip, Fox News reported. “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.”
On Wednesday, Ellis-Marseglia faced jeers and calls for her resignation from a packed crowd who turned out for the latest meeting of the Bucks County Commission. She read a prepared statement apologizing for her past remarks. “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 said. “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.”
Saying the quiet part out loud may have done too much damage, however. On social media, users ratcheted up their demands for consequences. “Trying to overturn an election by counting illegal ballots is a crime & that’s exactly what Diane-Ellis Marseglia and Bob Harvie did,” one user wrote, referencing another Democratic member of the commission who voted to count the contested ballots. “Raise your hand if you think they should be arrested, prosecuted and put in prison.”Ellis-Marseglia tried to equate her stance with the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a statement that drew loud groans from attendees. “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,” she said. “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.”
As the audience erupted in boos and groans, the Democrat slammed her gavel repeatedly and called for silence. “If you would just bear with me for one more minute!” she shouted. “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,” she said. “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.”
The embattled official said she had become the victim of hateful calls, “all of them involved horrible, horrible expletives,” and some which she claimed contained death threats. But the attention she brought on herself isn’t letting up, especially given the high-stakes nature of the Senate election and what it means for control of the upper chamber next year. “This is a BLATANT violation of the law and we intend to fight it every step of the way,” Lara Trump blasted on X after viewing the viral video. The RNC co-chair’s post garnered over 1.2 million views in 24 hours, Fox reported.
The counting of ballots without proper signatures has emerged as a flashpoint in the recount effort. Earlier this month the state’s high court ordered that mail-in ballots not be counted unless they contain signatures on outside envelopes matching the signatures for voters that the state has on file. Casey has refused to concede the race even though the AP has called it for McCormick, who has already been invited to Senate onboarding meetings where he was designated “Senator-elect.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a possible 2028 contender, came to Ellis-Marseglia’s defense in a statement on Wednesday saying she and other commissioners faced a lack of legal clarity and were “damned if they did and damned if they didn’t — likely facing legal action no matter which decision they made on counting.”
