Officials at both the Republican National Committee (RNC) and President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign raised the possibility of criminal charges against the Bucks County, Pennsylvania commissioners who voted to count ballots that were repeatedly deemed illegal by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Bucks County commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia (pictured above, left) and Bob Harvie (pictured above, right) successfully voted last Thursday to count mail-in ballots returned with a missing, incorrect, or incomplete date amid a recount in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race between Senator-elect Dave McCormick and Senator Bob Casey, who has refused to concede despite The Associated Press declaring he lost the election.
The commissioners voted to count the ballots despite the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling them illegal on November 1, prompting legal action and calls for criminal consequences.
When Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo introduced a motion to block the illegal ballots from being counted, Ellis-Marseglia specifically argued, “people violate laws anytime they want,” and appeared to taunt the court by saying, “if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”
These comments reportedly prompted RNC Chairman Michael Whatley to confirm the party is determining whether it can seek to hold the commissioners criminally responsible for their actions, according to The Daily Caller reporter Reagan Reese, who reported Whatley said the party “will pursue this to the fullest extent we can.”
Whatley’s remarks followed an earlier post to the social media platform X by Chris LaCivita, the Trump campaign’s co-chair and the RNC’s chief operating officer.
“They will go to jail,” wrote LaCivita, sharing a post suggesting the commissioners could be engaged in a racketeering scheme. He added, “count on it.”
McCormick’s campaign similarly accused the commissioners of violating the law after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reaffirmed its ruling on Monday.
“Today’s ruling is a massive setback to Senator Casey’s attempt to count illegal ballots. Bucks County and others blatantly violated the law in an effort to help Senator Casey,” said a McCormick campaign spokesman. “Senator-elect McCormick is very pleased with this ruling and looks forward to taking the Oath of Office in a few short weeks.”
The campaign also published a letter sent by the RNC and Republican Party of Pennsylvania to Bucks County officials after the ruling, requesting that the county begin complying with the ruling and preserve documents, text messages, and emails that led to their decision to count illegal votes.
“Unfortunately, the Bucks County Board of Elections has chosen to support outgoing Senator Casey’s election denial – and has even broken the law to do so,” wrote the Republicans in their letter, specifically citing the November 14 statement by Ellis-Marseglia. “In accordance with Commissioner Ellis-Marseglia’s open defiance of the law, the Board has now included invalid ballots in its official tally of votes—including defective mail ballots that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has repeatedly declared may not be counted in the 2024 General Election.”
While the Bucks County government has not commented since the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its decision, the local Republican Party reported that the county informed the party’s attorneys that it would abide by the ruling.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Diane Ellis-Marseglia” by Diane Ellis-Marseglia. Photo “Bob Harvie” by Bob Harvie.
