Kyle Sammin: Democracy dies in daylight as Democrats break the law to help Casey
The Washington Post has been telling us for eight years now that Democracy Dies in Darkness. Anyone who watched the proceedings in Bucks County this week knows that’s not true. It dies in broad daylight.
As we all know by now, Republican Dave McCormick came out on top in the Senate race against three-term incumbent Democrat Bob Casey, Jr. As the final votes were being counted, the race tightened, but McCormick still led by tens of thousands of votes statewide, with not nearly enough provisional and absentee ballots still outstanding for Casey to honestly believe he had a chance to pull ahead in the tally.
But even if he couldn’t honestly believe it, he and Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias sure seem to dishonestly believe it. Casey made a big deal about counting every vote, even after the Associated Press and others acknowledged that he had lost. And that’s not a crazy thing to insist on — in fact, under state law, these ballots were always going to be counted. At no point were county officials going to stop doing their duty to tally every valid ballot.
At the same time, though, we were given to understand that the officials across the commonwealth’s 67 counties would all follow the law as they did so.
Pennsylvania law requires that mail-in voters hand-write the date on the outer envelope of their ballots. This has been the case since the law was passed in 2019. No one denies that the text of the law still says that. And just to make it crystal clear, the state Supreme Court ruled in September that for this election, that law must be followed.
That rejection, opponents contend, was on procedural grounds — the plaintiffs didn’t sue all the right state officials in their attempt to overturn the law on handwritten dates. That’s true. But it doesn’t diminish the ruling, nor does it detract from the idea that the court wanted clarity about this issue as we headed into what everyone knew would be a close and hotly contested election.
This is a court, remember, that has a 5-2 Democratic majority. Their ruling could not be chalked up to partisan politics, only to a sincere desire to make sure the law was enforced uniformly and fairly across the commonwealth.
But not everyone believed them. So some plaintiffs again took the case to Commonwealth Court, which held 3-2 in late October that throwing out undated ballots would risk violating the voters’ rights.
To which the state Supreme Court immediately replied, “did we stutter?”
In a brief, unsigned, and unanimous opinion, the high court vacated the lower court ruling on November 1. A concurring opinion from Justice Kevin Dougherty (himself a Philadelphia Democrat) expanded on the thinking of at least some of the exasperated justices.
“‘This Court will neither impose nor countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election.’ We said those carefully chosen words only weeks ago,” Dougherty wrote. “Yet they apparently were not heard in the Commonwealth Court, the very court where the bulk of election litigation unfolds. Today’s order, which I join, rights the ship. And it sends a loud message to all courts in this Commonwealth: in declaring we would not countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election, we said what we meant and meant what we said.”
That certainly should have been the end of it.
But what did the Casey campaign do? Ask counties to count undated ballots. Where did they do it? Not everywhere, just in the counties where they thought they would find more votes for their man. Exactly the situation the high court wanted to avoid and, in fact, ruled that counties must avoid.
In some ways, you can’t blame McCormick then or Casey now for asking. The legal system is adversarial and lawyers must zealously represent their clients’ interests. It should have been an impossible argument to win, since the state Supreme Court said no to this idea just two weeks ago, but they’re allowed to try, and allowed to lose.
What you shouldn’t expect is for the county commissioners to agree to something that they know is illegal. And yet! Here we are. Commissioners of Bucks, Centre, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties — all Democrats — voted to accept those illegal ballots, acting in open defiance of the clear and unambiguous ruling of the court.
They should all lose their jobs.
It’s not going to work. Even if they cheat, the votes are not there for Casey to prevail. But scraping the bottom of the barrel for invalid votes does get the race close enough to allow a recount. Which will also fail.
The newspaper of record covers this story mostly by saying Dave McCormick is a hypocrite for asking for invalid ballots to be excluded. He wanted them counted in the 2022 primary, when the law was less clear on the point. But McCormick also declined to make the state pay for a recount in that race even though it was much, much closer than this one — he lost to Mehmet Oz by 953 votes; Casey trails by 23,499 at last count, even after including the invalid votes.
These commissioners think they’re doing something noble and brave, standing up for something. But they forget which side of the table they’re on. When a citizen refuses to obey an unjust law, it is called civil disobedience. When the government breaks the law, it is tyranny.
That misunderstanding of their place in our political system extends even farther than that: an ordinary citizen who engages in civil disobedience expects to be punished, hoping only that by drawing attention to the problem, he will get those in power to change the law. But these people are in power and they don’t expect to be punished. They’re not resigning in protest, they’re not reporting to jail for the election fraud they’re committing. They expect, instead, to be lauded and even reelected, if you please.
This is how Democrats are saving democracy?
They all broke the law, but Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia (D) was the most outspoken about her refusal to be governed by our constitutional system.
“Precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” she said. “And people violate laws anytime they want. For me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”
Well, at least no one can say she didn’t know what she was doing. She said it out loud, under the flickering fluorescents of the county administration building.
It’s a disgrace to this state and its laws that someone entrusted with the powers of government would use them to rig an election. It won’t work. The courts won’t stand for it and neither will the people. But, in her own way, Ellis-Marseglia and her cronies have reminded us why we have the rule of law, why we have the separation of powers, why we have free elections, and why we have a free press to report on it all.
It’s to protect us from people like her.
Kyle Sammin is the managing editor of Broad + Liberty.
The litigation will continue until someone runs out of money. The State Supreme Court does have the power to invalidate the ballots that these counties chose to count in contravention to the Supreme Court’s two decisions in the matter. Should it finally work out that McCormick is declared the winner, we can all be sure that sometime in the next Pennsylvania legislative session there will be bi-partisan consensus of the need for further reform of the election system in Pennsylvania and new elections law will be presented for approval.
Democracy died on January 6th, 2020. When Trump was so desperate to remain in office that he and his staff organized an insurrection, with the support of the wife of a Supreme Court Justice. It stayed on life support when Trump spent years claiming that the vote had been rigged, even though he lost over 60 lawsuits. His is own U.S. Attorney General, Bill Barr, stated that the 2020 election had been the most secure election in American history. And all of the people involved were Republicans.
Please stop propagating the lies of the brain-dead. Not one person was charged with insurrection. I personally witnessed voter fraud in Pa in 2020. It is clear Wolf broke the law by mailing ballots to everyone on the voter rolls including hundreds of thousands to people who were not eligible to vote in Pa.
If you want to reply to every article, at the very least you should have the facts. There’s nothing worse than a loudmouth who is clueless.
You are absolutely CORRECT Bobbo. NO ONE has been charged with insurrection. It should make any reasonable person question why not. However, we all recognize that far too many on the Left, which Judah epitomizes, keep repeating LIES, hoping that their constant repetition will make people believe them. It’s their M.O. and everyone needs to understand that.
Did ANY of the protestors have guns? Judah should know the answer to that. The only person murdered was an unarmed protestor, whose killer was a Capitol Hill policeman who should have been removed from the force in 2019 due to his irresponsibly leaving his loaded gun in a Capitol restroom in 2019. Also, why did the police let them into the building? The investigations into what actually happened during that protest and who was involved were NON-transparent to the core. The Committee was totally partisan and meant to GET TRUMP and his followers. Any Republican who would provide Trump’s side to be heard was forbidden to be on it. I hope that those who were jailed and not given due process will be pardoned.
The insurrection was unbelievable! I mean thousands and thousands of people being let into the Capitol with flags! The horror! And they were all taking selfies inside with no regard for the use of flash photography. They should remain in jail for decades, said no one with a brain, ever.
You mean the thousands of people who broke through two lines of police barriers, broke down the doors of the Capitol Building, and broke into legislators offices. If they were so peaceful why were over 100 police officers injured, Pence and Congress had to go to secure rooms. Along with barricading doors.
“You are absolutely CORRECT Bobbo. NO ONE has been charged with insurrection.” – So what was their intent when they broke past two sets of barricades manned by police officers, assaulted those officers with clubs, bear spray, and tasers. Along with breaking down the doors to the capital building, the doors to offices, and Congress.
“Did ANY of the protestors have guns? Judah should know the answer to that.” Your right I do. “At least nine people who were at or around the Capitol were arrested on weapons charges. A review of the police reports related to the arrests show that police seized at least 3,071 rounds of ammunition during the course of these arrests. Hundreds of rounds of additional ammo were found during the subsequent arrests of other individuals who participated.” https://www.everytown.org/were-guns-present-at-the-january-6th-capitol-insurrection/
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2022/06/15/fact-check-were-firearms-other-weapons-capitol-jan-6/7621149001/
“NBC News identified John Emanuel Banuelos two years ago as the man in photos and video footage who appeared to be flashing a gun in his waistband as he fought officers on Jan. 6, 2021.
Last month, Jan. 6 rioter Derrick Evans, who is now running in a Republican House primary in West Virginia, published previously unseen video that appeared to show that Banuelos actually fired his weapon twice outside the Capitol that day.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-supporter-charged-firing-gun-jan-6-capitol-attack-rcna142538
“The only person murdered was an unarmed protestor, whose killer was a Capitol Hill policeman” Ashli Babbitt along with the mob broke through a wire reinforced security window, peeled it back to enter a restricted area, was repeatedly warned not to enter or she would be shot. She should have complied with the police.
” Also, why did the police let them into the building?” You mean after the mob broke through two manned police barricades, and broke down doors and windows to breach the Capital building.
I have never understood how anyone claims that Trump “organized an insurrection” when he clearly and plainly told everyone to go “peacefully” to the capitol. What do you not understand about the word “peacefully?”
Does peaceful include breaking past two sets of barricades, breaking down the main doors and offices in the capital building, and over 100 police officers were injured.
312 electoral votes and 79 million voters say it didn’t.
I suggest that you place a stockpot over your head and continuously bang it with a wooden spoon until November, 2028.
That was the vote to elect Trump President, not to absolve him of organizing an insurrection. “You can fool some of the people all of the time”.
If you believe that bovine scatology I have a bridge to sell you. The Captiol Police were not overrun but rather ordered to stand down to allow the entry of paid actors who led that charade. Do you honestly think for one minute that a rag tag group of people can STORM The US Capitol?
Stop looking at the world via the MSNBC/CNN Kaleidoscope and try some independent thought.
If you actually had proof of this you would post it.
Mr. Sammin,
Thank you for this excellent article. The situation was confusing to me, and you’ve explained exactly what is occurring. Much appreciated. It is sad this story is not getting more exposure in mainstream media. If the Republicans want some bang for their buck, and take advantage of this egregious situation, they should produce a commercial explaining what is going on and run it during remaining Eagles’ games and wake up some people to the situation.
Voters have the sole responsibility to complete their mail in or absentee ballot properly. The instructions are plain and clear. The county election boards are not disenfranchising voters. Indeed, voters are notified and are allowed to cure their ballot by 8:00 pm on election day. The court ruled plainly. Can these commissioners be recalled?
Should the officials counting the ineligible ballots be prosecuted? Contempt of Court perhaps?
The commissioners, especially Marseglia in Bucks, should be locked up and led away in handcuffs. She is willfully and publicly refusing to follow the superior court ruling.
It is the actions of people like the Commissioners that have led our society to view laws as mere recommendations to violated at will when they don’t permit actions one is personally in favour of or are personally against. Democracy dies when elected officials take a position of “what, I didn’t prevail? The hell with you I going to do as I/we please. They should be recalled or impeached. If this is not feasible, every action they take must be closely reviewed and challenged when necessary. The next election cycle when they are up for re-election their views and actions need to be constantly put in front of the electorate. Maybe we can break the cycle of “Who cares? the voters will forget by next election.”
This is a glorious suggestion that in fact Biden’s “win” in2020 could have been this sort of Democratic Party cheating, as so many have suspected in spite of all the denials by their party operatives.
And yet four years later no one has been able to find proof of a vast and highly organized operation.
They have on several occasions, however NO COURT was willing to hear it.
Are the courts stopping you from posting your proof?
Where is the outrage from the main stream media? It’s one thing to challenge, but to challenge when the court already ruled not to count them is outrageous for this handful of counties, understand that the overwhelming of PA’s 67 counties got the memo from the PA Supreme Court and understood it!
This is an extremely well written Op-Ed that has the facts and logic of the situation perfectly laid out, but there is something that is missing in it. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has a great deal of responsibility for the willingness of the election boards to nakedly defy them for two reasons. The first is that in permitting universal mail in balloting in Pennsylvania the State Supreme court caved to the Democratic party by ignoring the section of the state constitution that required in person voting and did so by relying on a bowdlerized reading of the preamble to the constitution ridiculously asserting that it somehow gave the court carte blanche to override any section of the constitution that the court did not like. The decision was already politicized so why wouldn’t the election boards think that the court would permit them to politicize their jobs as long as it was in favor of the party outcome, to which they all belong? Second, the court has acted weakly in enforcing its decision. A court that has to render the same decision more than once in a few weeks is not respected and an election supervisor who says out loud that she is going to ignore its ruling because she feels that no one really respects courts any more needs a practical showing of the power of a court. The court should have issued an order to the election boards requiring them to not count the illegal ballots, to also apologize publicly for having done while openly ignoring the courts decision and to do so within 24 hours. Any official who fails to follow the order should be held in contempt for a period of 60 days or until the election count if finalized, whichever is longer. That might make officials a little more wary of ignoring the orders of the court.
As always, every Republican accusation is really a confession. Just wondering: Is Casey inspiring any rioters to smash their way into the capitol chanting death threats and murdering cops? Er… I mean engaging in “legitimate political discourse”. If not, according to Repubicans c.2020 its also fine to ask the governor to “find the votes” he needs to win or just straight up forge fraudulent documents for an illegal slate of fake electors. Or, according to the “independent state legislature” doctrine the right has pushed, our Democratic state legislature could arbitrarily choose they don’t like the results and “legally” send in the results that suit them. And of course, if all else fails, kamala can summarily choose not to certify the results in January. Problem solved lol
Sisero; ask Judah for his metal stock pot and wooden spoon when he/she is done with it. The 2020 election improprieties have been fully put on display by the outcome of this election. The only person murdered on 1/6 was a female Air Force veteran patriot demonstrator Ashli Babbitt shot by a lackey DEI hire keystone capitol cop. Nancy Pelosi had more to do with 1/6 violence than Trump did. Only deranged liberal are holding on to your fairytale, and you all lost.
“Ashli Babbitt shot by a lackey DEI hire keystone capitol cop.” Ashli Babbitt and the mob broke through a wire reinforced security window that had to be peeled back. She was repeatedly warned by the police not to enter a high security area and that she would be shot if she did so. She should have complied with the police.
:Nancy Pelosi had more to do with 1/6 violence than Trump did. ” What did she do to incite violence?
Those who cast in-person ballots do not have the opportunity to alter, fix, or change a vote, so why should improperly executed ballots of another type be special? Unless the idea really is to create the opportunity to cheat. I live in PA. For those who don’t know, the Supreme Court is elected and is currently Democrat-dominated.
I just want to ask if an unarmed woman, stepping through an already broken glass pane is oral and legal grounds to be shot in the face and killed? In the overall scheme of things, January 6th wasn’t even a good riot when measured by French civil standards. I suppose the Antifa and BLM riots are to be view as merely peaceful, exuberant protests and should not be considered as impacting civil order and government functioning? These riots had all the necessary hallmarks of attempts to overthrow the government.
“I just want to ask if an unarmed woman, stepping through an already broken glass pane is oral and legal grounds to be shot in the face and killed?” She was warned and a very violent mob was right behind her. A mob that had breached two police barricades and the Capital building. Unarmed or not she should have complied.
“I suppose the Antifa and BLM riots are to be view as merely peaceful, exuberant protests and should not be considered as impacting civil order and government functioning.” Based on what facts?