Democrat Pennsylvania election official Diane Ellis-Marseglia admitted that she was wrong to defy the state Supreme Court’s ruling to count faulty ballots in the 2024 election ahead of a recount in the state’s Senate race.
On Wednesday during a heated county meeting, the Bucks County commissioner pleaded with the voters to forgive her — though Ellis-Marseglia said last week that “we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country, and people violate laws any time they want” as she called for others to join her in violating the law, CNN reported.
“The passion in my heart got the best of me and I apologize again for that,” the county commissioner told the crowd.
“I made a mistake, and because I am an elected official, I am held to a far higher standard than everybody else,” she added. “So, to the citizens I serve, I apologize, and I will continue to work hard for you and endeavor to not make such a mistake again.”
The race for the Senate seat in the swing state is close enough that it has triggered an automatic recount as Senator Bob Casey refuses to concede to Republican Dave McCormick, after multiple outlets, including the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ, called the race for McCormick.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court previously blocked an effort to count mail-in ballots with incorrect or missing dates on the outer envelopes — but that didn’t stop Democrats in the Bucks County Office of Commissioners from pushing for exactly that.
Last week, Gene DiGirolamo, the sole Republican on the three-person panel, introduced a motion to reject the attempt to count what the GOP called “noncompliant” ballots. In response, Marseglia dismissed the proposal out of hand.
“Not going to second that, mostly because I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter in this country and people violate laws any time they want,” she said. “So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want the court to pay attention to it.”
Marseglia and the second Democrat on the commission, Robert Harvie, voted to count the disqualified ballots.
Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro, considered one of the favorites for the 2028 Democrat presidential nomination, took the side of the court that ruled against Democratic officials who defied state law — but condemned such actions by officials after the court’s ruling.
On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled once again that counties must reject undated and misdated ballots after Democrat election officials openly defied the order.
Following the court’s decision, Shapiro wrote, “As we move forward, I want to be clear: any insinuation that our laws can be ignored or do not matter is irresponsible and does damage to faith in our electoral process. The rule of law matters in this Commonwealth, and as I have always said, it is critical for counties and officials in both parties to respect it with both their rhetoric and their actions.”
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