Trump campaign official Chris LaCivita predicted election officials in Pennsylvania will face jail time for counting mail-in ballots with either incorrect or missing dates after the state Supreme Court previously ruled such ballots should not be counted.
“They will go to jail,” LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager, posted to his X account on Sunday evening. “Count on it.”
LaCivita was reacting to a social media post touting a Washington Free Beacon article detailing that Democratic Sen. Bob Casey endorsed Democratic Bucks County commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia last year during her campaign for the position, before she and other Democratic commissioners in the state voted to count the disqualified ballots.
“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” Ellis-Marseglia said Thursday as she and other Democrats voted to reject a GOP-led challenge to ballots that should be disqualified.
PENNSYLVANIA DEMOCRATS OPENLY ADMIT TO COUNTING ILLEGAL BALLOTS IN MCCORMICK-CASEY RACE
Pennsylvania is in the midst of a ballot recount after Casey refused to concede his race against Sen.-elect Dave McCormick earlier this month. McCormick’s unofficial margin of victory stands at roughly 17,000 votes, or within the 0.5% threshold required under Pennsylvania law to trigger an automatic recount.
“Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and the worth of someone’s vote is not determined by how long it takes to be counted,” Casey wrote in an op-ed defending his decision to not concede the race. “When a Pennsylvanian takes the time to cast a legal vote, often waiting in long lines and taking time away from their work and family, they deserve to have their vote counted, whether it is the first ballot counted or the last.”
The state Supreme Court ruled ahead of the election that mail-in ballots that do not include formally required signatures or dates should not be counted for the official tally of votes in the state. Democratic-led election boards, however — including in Philadelphia, Bucks County, Montgomery County, and Centre County — bucked the state high court’s ruling and voted to include such ballots in the recount.
“People violate laws any time they want,” Ellis-Marseglia said last week, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “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.”
REPUBLICANS FILE 12 PENNSYLVANIA LAWSUITS IN ‘AGGRESSIVE’ PUSH TO END RECOUNT
In addition to Casey endorsing the Democratic commissioner during her campaign last year, Ellis-Marseglia, as well as fellow Democratic Bucks County commissioner Bob Harvie, donated a combined $2,600 to the Casey campaign this year, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Republicans have launched a bevy of lawsuits over including the disqualified ballots in the recount. Republican Party officials are filing 12 lawsuits in Pennsylvania in order to protect the Senate seat.
‘ABSOLUTE LAWLESSNESS’: GOP BLASTS PA. DEMS’ RECOUNT EFFORT IN CASEY SENATE LOSS
Both national and state Republican parties have filed lawsuits in four counties across Pennsylvania, urging the courts to not count mail-in ballots with either incorrect or missing dates, in accordance with a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling this month.
RNC officials challenged the notion that the Senate recount, which continues through Nov. 26, will change the outcome of the election in any substantive way. They have decried the effort, which costs an estimated $1 million, as a waste of taxpayer money, noting that since 2000 there have been just three statewide election recounts in Pennsylvania, and each has resulted in an average change of 393 votes.
PENNSYLVANIA DEMOCRATS SLAMMED FOR COUNTING ILLEGAL BALLOTS IN SENATE RACE: UNBELIEVABLY ‘BRAZEN’
“Democrat officials are on video saying that they’re going to choose to break the law, and there will be legal consequences for that,” a senior party official told Fox News earlier Monday.
“The Casey campaign could end the recount at any time,” Pennsylvania Republican Party Chair Lawrence Tabas added of the lawsuits. “And there are political ramifications of eroding the voters’ confidence in elections that has been built. So we need to stop this attempt at electioneering and declare McCormick the winner.”
