PA Supreme Court tells Bucks board not to count ‘problem’ ballots

✔️ The vote is nearly split in Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race

✔️ Republican Dave McCormick has claimed victory over U.S. Sen. Bob Casey

✔️ A judge ruled that 'problem' ballots can not be counted

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court added another twist to the recount of votes in the U.S. Senate race with a ruling that eliminated some ballots from the count.

In a ruling Monday, the court ordered the Board of Elections to comply with earlier rulings and not count mail-in and absentee ballots returned with undated or misdated envelopes. Officials in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties had defied the court's earlier decisions about such ballots and continued to count them.

According to a post by the Bucks County Republican Committee, the Board of Elections told its attorneys it will comply with the order and remove the votes from the county totals.

Board of Elections Chair Bob Harvie, in a statement, defended the board's decision to count those votes.

"The decisions the Board rendered last week are consistent with its long-standing practice of fighting to protect the rights of registered Bucks County voters who made some immaterial mistake on their ballot envelopes or, even worse, suffered mistakes made by election workers, but who nonetheless cast ballots in an effort to have their vote count. Whatever candidates those ballots do or do not lift to victory is up to the voters, and is not the concern of the Board," Harvie wrote in a statement.

Harvie said that as the decision was reported in the national media, members of the board, their families and county workers have been subject to threats. Those threats have been turned over to law enforcement, according to Harvie.

The Bucks County board's decision is in line with various decisions in state and federal courts that have deemed it unconstitutional or illegal to throw out such ballots. But higher courts — including the state Supreme Court — have blocked those decisions, with litigation still pending.

Two-hundred and twenty-five mail-in ballots for Democratic incumbent Bob Casey and 182 for Republican Dave McCormick were counted. There were 101 provisional ballots cast for Casey and 106 for McCormick. Harvie said that both candidates knew the numbers would not make a difference in the final tally.

McCormick claimed victory after the Associated Press called the race for him despite a close vote count. He participated in an orientation for new senators and has been assigned an office. Casey has not conceded citing the uncounted ballots.

"Pennsylvanians deserve to trust that when they cast a vote legally, it is counted," Casey wrote on his campaign X account Monday afternoon. "Regardless of the final result, I am committed to ensuring Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard."

McCormick did not comment on the court's decision.

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