Yesterday, Ethics Alarms noted [Item #6] that Democrats in Pennsylvania had voted in favor of counting mail-in ballots that were ruled invalid by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and will be counting those disqualified ballots to try to overturn the apparent victory of GOP Senator-elect Dave McCormick over incumbent Sen. Bob Casey in the upcoming recount. The Associated Press called the race for McCormick on November 7, and he is now leading Casey by over 17,000 votes.
This fondness for counting void votes is, of course, passing strange conduct from the party whose captive journalists keep saying that President-Elect Trump’s four years of claims that the 2020 Presidential election was “stolen” from him are “completely groundless.” Pennsylvania’s electoral college votes are among those the incoming President felt were stolen. Call me crazy and paint me puce, but I’d say deliberately and openly counting votes the state Supreme Court says are invalid is prima facie evidence that this a party not above cheating to hold onto power.
Now, after the Republican National Committee sued last week after several counties decided to openly cheat by counting ballots with incorrect dates, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court today reiterated its decision from November 5. Justice David Wecht wrote in his concurring statement that it is “critical to the rule of law that individual counties and municipalities and their elected and appointed officials, like any other parties, obey orders of this Court.” Justice Kevin Brobson likewise wrote that local election officials do not “have the authority to ignore Election Code provisions that they believe are unconstitutional.” The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed on November 1 that requiring mail-in ballots to have handwritten dates is constitutional.
Democrats needed an official court opinion to explain that that they have to follow the state Supreme Court? Well, you know, this is a party that has proven over the last several years that it will do almost anything to hold onto power. Maybe they got confused by all of their dishonest campaign ads across the country that made it sound like Donald Trump would be able to violate the U.S. Constitution at will. That false narrative was supposed to fool the civically ignorant, the Trump deranged hysterics, and mentally challenged. Pretty ironic that the party got fooled by its own lies.
“Following our latest RNC lawsuit, today the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled yet again that undated ballots CANNOT BE COUNTED,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley wrote in a statement on Twitter/X. “No more excuses. Election officials in Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, and other counties have absolutely no choice but to reject illegal ballots. We will hold them to it.”
Good luck with that. The news of Pennsylvania Democrats being slapped down trying to break the law comes as it has been revealed to the New York Times by two sources that claims Kamala Harris paid a million dollars to have Oprah Winfrey endorse her and interview her at a splashy campaign event were wrong. No, the full price Kamala’s campaign paid for the event with Winfrey was almost $2.5 million.
Paying for endorsements is illegal as well as unethical, and the Harris campaign (and Oprah) maneuvered around the law by paying O’s company to hold the event, not Oprah herself. This is like the dodge crooked politicians use when they have quid pro quo funds paid to their favorite charities (the Clinton Foundation, for example) or to the politician’s wife or kids.
This is a party that cheats, and that now has cheating embedded in its culture. If you want to know why Trump’s selections for his departments heads look like a wrecking crew, you need look no further than that reality. He learned in his first term and throughout the Biden years that the Democratic “deep state” and its Washington loyalists would try to block the will of the people by any means possible. It’s terrible and a little frightening that it’s come to this, but it’s come to this.
Ethics Alarms 
does an invalidated Senatorial race, get redone? Declared for the non-cheater or what? Never looked at non presidential election procedures.
This is a recount. The courts should rule that the recount is invalid since the invalid ballots are put in in such a way that they can’t be backed out (as they did in 2020, by the way). The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has no one to blame for this than themselves. They ruled that such ballots couldn’t be counted in 2020 and the Democrats counted them anyway. The Democrats admitted in court that they did it and the Supreme Court let it go (let the illegal votes count towards defeating Trump) instead of invalidating the election. Well, this is a recount. They need to invalidate it and rule that the original count needs to be used.
Well, it looks like they gave up. It appears the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has told them to stop counting illegal ballots, but the illegal ones they managed to count so far will stand. So, will they stop counting the illegal ones now, or will they wait for the Supreme Court to impotently wag their finger at them and then continue counting?
It will probably depend if it matters.
Unlike 2020, Republicans in 2024 actually participated in early voting and mail in ballots this year in competitive numbers, the Democrats were likely drawing at straws to begin with, and I have serious doubts that Democrats specifically were unable to write a date on a ballot. Regardless, my inkling is that there won’t be a reason to invalidate the recount and recount again if the result is the same…. It’s not like government is morally opposed to wasting money, but at some point, they do stop.
You may have missed something there. If you were going to send in a ballot late, you might not want to date it. So, ballots that were submitted say…November 11th, would likely not have a date or a signature.
They’re handwritten though… What would keep a late voter from lying? I assumed that the postmarks invalidated late votes.
What postmarks? The post office hasn’t been putting postmarks on the ballots. The ballots also can be dropped in drop boxes. The postal union endorsed Kamala Harris and they are given unsupervised access to ballots.
Ok… But then, my question remains: The fields we’re talking about are handwritten What keeps the from writing November 9th on it?
Is the contention that Democrats are cheatery enough to commit election fraud and cast a late ballot, but not cheatery enough to sign and date it?
I knew you’d come around in justifying Trump’s horrific cabinet picks, just didn’t think it would happen quite so quickly….took you at least a few months before you flip flopped on voting for him. I also liked how you blamed Hegseth for his own nomination rather than Trump….somewhere deep down you know you sold yourself out in supporting him, don’t you? Your principles are completely malleable and just wholly dictated by Trump’s PR team at this point, eh? Sad, Jack. Really, really sad.
I almost didn’t let this obnoxious comment out of moderation, but I feel like knocking it out of the metaphorical park, so it’s up. (You have a false email address, which violated the rules here, so you’re not getting a second comment through.)
I blame Hegseth for accepting a nomination he’s not qualified for. Obviously, since that was what I wrote, I ruled it a bad nomination by Trump. Similarly I wrote that the Gaetz nomination is irresponsible, so your comment is based on a false premise throughout.
I have made my reluctant preference for Trump over the party that has employed a scorched earth, totalitarian campaign to stop him and the will of the public, and have explained that unpleasant choice in magnificent detail. All the Democrats had to do to win my vote was not deal in Big Lies, small lies, fearmongering and undemocratic tactics, not cover up their President’s senility, behave like a responsible party, and nominate a competent ticket. They couldn’t do it. Instead we got the most incompetent Presidential candidate since Horace Greeley and the most idiotic VP pick in my lifetime.
Now the irresponsible and civically illiterate people, like you, who refused to hold the Democrats to minimal standards of sanity and decency are upset: GOOD. Condign justice! I love it, and if I can contribute to your misery, I’m happy to do it.
Now get lost. You’re banned.
Two words to explain what’s going on in Pennsylvania and the Casey “campaign”: Marc Elias. Ethics villain and Fick.
Sen. Fetterman is running the Official Liberal Subroutine* on this one.
(1) It isn’t happening
(2) It is only happening a little
(3) OK, it is happening a lot, but it is really a GOOD thing!
(4) Why do you care about this so much?
He is on step 2 stating that it is fine to count illegal ballots because there aren’t enough of them to matter.
Gov. Shapiro stated today that counting the invalid ballots is OK because the legal guidance on this was ‘unclear’, so they didn’t know what to do.
As a famous Democrat once said, “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.” At least the Democrats of today haven’t entirely abandoned tradition.
But hey cancelled Andy a long time ago. Slaveholder, “Trail of Tears”…