Tipsheet

PA Dems Attempting to Steal Senate Election May End Up in Some Serious Legal Trouble

Pennsylvania Democrats are still trying to steal a Senate race from Republican Dave McCormick, who has won the seat.  Ousted incumbent Sen. Bob Casey won't admit that he's actually been ousted, however, and as we've covered for days now, he's enlisted the help of lawyer Marc Elias to drag out the process.  The state is preparing for a recount -- to which Casey is entitled under the law -- which will push the final conclusion until the brink of Thanksgiving. "As outlined in Act 97, the 67 county boards of elections must begin their recounts by Wednesday, Nov. 20, and complete them by noon on Tuesday, Nov. 26. The boards must send Mr. Schmidt the results of their recounts no later than noon on Wednesday, Nov. 27," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.  Additional context and details from the article:

This is the eighth time a recount has been triggered in an election in Pennsylvania since Act 97 passed in 2004...Mr. McCormick was involved in the most recent recount in 2022 when he trailed Mehmet Oz in the Republican Senate primary by a razor-thin margin of 0.07 percentage points, or 972 votes. The automatic recount affirmed Mr. Oz’s victory and Mr. McCormick promptly conceded...Recounts that have changed the result of a statewide election are exceptionally rare. Of the 6,929 statewide election recounts across the country between 2000 and 2023, only three resulted in the trailing candidate coming out ahead, according to an analysis by the election-focused nonprofit FairVote. The four automatic recounts that have taken place in Pennsylvania during that time have all confirmed the leading candidates’ victories...

The Associated Press called the race for Mr. McCormick on Nov. 7, writing that the outstanding votes “were not enough in areas supporting Casey for him to make up the difference.” ... McCormick has filed several lawsuits and appeals to invalidate batches of votes across the state, including 405 misdated or undated ballots in Bucks County that he alleges the local board of elections counted in violation of the state’s ballot dating requirement. How many of these votes were for Mr. Casey has not been released publicly. During a news conference last Friday, Mr. McCormick said that his campaign’s legal action was merely procedural, rather than being sparked by a concern that he could lose.

Some interesting tidbits there, including how McCormick himself was involved in the state's past recount, when the margin was in the hundreds, rather than the tens of thousands.  He lost, and "promptly conceded." And his team's lawsuits to throw out the unlawful counting of illegal ballots isn't merely justified, it's absolutely necessary, given the lawlessness and corruption at play. This is genuinely outrageous:


That soundbyte is extraordinary.  She's openly violating the law, and she admits it, in open session, on camera.  That woman, by the way, is also a Bob Casey donor: 


This goes beyond partisan games. This is sinister election denial and corruption. She and others are flouting not only the clearly-written law, but also a specific ruling on this very point from the (majority Democratic) state Supreme Court.  As Sarah noted yesterday, this lawlessness has earned a rebuke from the left-leaning Washington Post editorial board:


Pennsylvania's Secretary of State has now issued a gentle reminder that laws are not optional.  Some lefties are starting to worry that the lawbreakers could end up in serious trouble:


One well-known, veteran Democratic figure in the state said days ago that Casey should give up this quixotic, illegitimate humiliation and throw in the towel:


The Post-Gazette story quoted above notes that the McCormick campaign is fighting all of this tooth and nail on principle, not out of fear that they might somehow lose.  The race is over:


I'll leave you with a sitting Senator making clear that the upper chamber intends to seat Senator-elect McCormick: