Election deniers? Democrats fight Pennsylvania Senate race results in court

Democrats are fighting the Senate election results in Pennsylvania, where GOP Senate candidate Dave McCormick has been declared the winner over Sen. Bob Casey, leading some to turn the “election denier” term on them.

Since the 2020 presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans have raised concerns about election irregularities and are often called slurred as “election deniers” by Democrats and the media. However, Democrats in Pennsylvania are now fighting the results of the Senate race that the Republican candidate has won.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Casey's campaign have sued 10 county boards of elections, demanding they count provisional ballots that were already rejected.

Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias' law firm filed the suits Monday on behalf of the plaintiffs who are seeking to count additional ballots after McCormick was declared the winner in the election against Casey. The rejected provisional ballots that Democrats want counted lack proper signatures, inner secrecy envelopes, or both.

The lawsuits claim that voters’ due process rights and the Help America Vote Act were violated because "procedural errors made by voters in casting their ballots are necessarily a result of a poll worker's failure to provide required material or correct and accurate instructions to voters."

There are more than 3,200 provisional ballots that were rejected in the 10 counties, which are Philadelphia, Lackawanna, Montgomery, Erie, Bucks, Dauphin, Delaware, York, Berks, and Lehigh.

A recount of the Senate race is ongoing after the results fell within the 0.5% threshold that automatically triggers it. However, the incumbent Casey could call for the recount to end. He has so far refused to do so.

Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt (R) said the counties must begin the recount by Nov. 20 and the process must be completed by noon on Nov. 26, according to NBC News. The results must then be reported by Nov. 27, and will be published after confirmation. The process is expected to cost the commonwealth more than $1 million.

The Pennsylvania Department of State reported that Democratic incumbent Casey received 3,350,972 (48.5%) votes and McCormick got 3,380,310 (48.93%).

Former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes reacted to the Democrats’ efforts to flip the Senate election results. “Why hasn’t the corporate media labeled [Bob Casey] as an election denier and threat to democracy yet?” Cortes posted on X last week.

The following day, Cortes wrote on X, “Pennsylvania Democrats are openly trying to steal an election. [Bob Casey] was defeated but now Democrats are trying to count ineligible votes to change the outcome in a recount. Why isn’t the corporate media condemning this?”

Nearly a week after Election Day, The Wall Street Journal editorial board reacted to Casey refusing to concede the Senate race. “The Associated Press and most other media have called the Senate race in Pennsylvania for Republican Dave McCormick. But never fear, Democrats, lawyer Marc Elias is on the case trying to steal the seat for incumbent Democrat Bob Casey. Did someone say ‘election denial’?” the editorial board wrote.

“Mr. Elias helped to steal a Senate seat in Minnesota for Al Franken in 2008 by finding a judge to count previously rejected ballots and overturn the lead of Republican Norm Coleman,” the board added. “The Elias method is to look for friendly judges who will rule in his favor.”

Meanwhile, the national and state Republican parties brought 12 lawsuits in Pennsylvania on Monday regarding the Senate race, some of which were resolved following the commonwealth Supreme Court’s ruling on the undated mail-in ballots. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled before the election that mail-in ballots that don't have proper dates or signatures would not be included in the official results. However, officials in Bucks County and Montgomery County allegedly ignored the order, according to Fox News.

"I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country," Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia (D) said during a county commission meeting last Thursday. "People violate laws anytime they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes," she added.

Ellis-Marseglia apologized for her comments on Wednesday. “I wanted to start by apologizing for the upset and the confusion that I have caused the citizens of Bucks County and the hardworking employees of this county and my family and those who share my last name,” Ellis-Marseglia said at Wednesday’s county commission meeting.

“Anyone who knows me knows that I care a lot about elections and I have been involved in them all my life, virtually,” she continued. “And like all of you and all Americans, I want this election and every election to be fair, to be honest, to be just, and one we can have confidence in.”

She clarified that her comments last week were regarding the provisional ballots, rather than the undated mail-in ballots.

“I will also clarify one more thing: when I inartfully [sic] 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,” Ellis-Marseglia said.

The Republican National Committee, for its part, filed two lawsuits last week to stop the counting of "illegal" ballots.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ruled for the RNC, holding that undated mail-in ballots may not be counted. The court ordered on Monday that all of the commonwealth's counties were not to count mail-in ballots that arrived on Election Day but didn't include dates written on the envelopes by voters, NPR reported.

Bucks County GOP posted on X on Monday regarding the ruling: "We won! The PA Supreme Court issued a ruling today ordering that all 67 PA County Boards Of Election shall comply with their earlier ruling and SHALL NOT COUNT misdated and undated ballots. This is a victory for election integrity and the rule of law."

"We just confirmed with our attorneys that the Bucks County Board of Elections will comply with todays [sic] PA Supreme Court Order will not count undated and misdated ballots and these votes will be removed from the County’s vote totals," the county Republican Party added. "We will continue to keep you updated throughout the state mandated recount process."