PITTSBURGH and BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Democratic county officials admit they are breaking the law by overturning Pennsylvania’s Senate elections for lose Senator Bob Casey.

“I think we all know that court precedent no longer matters in this country,” said Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, who voted Thursday in favor of counting the ballots defective provisional ballots, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court order prohibited, in which voters did not do so. sign in one of the two necessary boxes.

“People violate laws all the time,” Ellis-Marseglia said. “So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it. There is nothing more important than counting votes.

Like Democrat Casey refuses to give in and hope that one tell will cancel the race called more than a week ago for Senator-elect Dave McCormick, Republicans allege that Democrats are also violating the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s order not to count undated ballots and those of unregistered voters on Election Day — although they remain confident the businessman and combat vet will maintain his victory after the legal shenanigans.

“When the count is complete, Dave will win by tens of thousands of votes,” Mark Davin Harris, the McCormick campaign’s top strategist, said of the ongoing count, which has narrowed to a 22,000-vote lead. for the Republican Party.

“Bob Casey has no path forward before the recount,” Harris added. He said the burden of proof is on Casey’s campaign to “show the real math” of how she can close the gap enough to justify Pennsylvania taxpayers shelling out at least $1 million for a recount required because McCormick’s lead is less than 0.5 points — because the incumbent senator could end it by admitting he lost.

McCormick and his Republican allies accused Democrats of illegally trying to count “votes of unregistered voters.”

“I am deeply disturbed by these efforts,” Harris said, noting that Casey’s lawyers are appealing to county election boards to count potentially thousands of votes cast as provisional ballots after their recording failed. could not be verified on election day.

“No one is trying to count the votes of people who were not registered. This is categorically false,” Casey’s campaign lawyer, Adam Bonin, told the Post.

“This is a blatant attempt by the Republican Party to lie and distract from its efforts to disenfranchise Pennsylvanians by rejecting the votes of registered voters.”

The Post obtained documents showing an appeal by Team Casey to challenge the rejection of 595, 310 and 591 ballots from unregistered voters in Lancaster, Lackawanna and Montgomery counties, respectively.

Casey’s campaign “challenges the rejection of provisional ballots based solely on the inability of Board staff to find the names of voters on the registered voter rolls,” Lackawanna’s appeal reads, arguing that the elections board may not have recognized eligible voters in the state database. voters may have moved or their registration is pending and potentially canceled.

McCormick campaign attorney James Fitzpatrick responded, “There is no legal or historical precedent for counting the votes of unregistered voters in Pennsylvania,” promising to file suit against election boards that “legitimize this frivolous argument.

“I don’t recall any difficulties in the past trying to get the Board of Elections to count provisional ballots from unregistered voters,” Republican Philadelphia County Commissioner Seth Bluestein told the Post after 13 years of working with the council.

Democratic lawyers withdrew their challenges Friday in Philadelphia after failing to provide a single voter who should have been registered.

McCormick’s team is also trying to overturn the Bucks County Board of Elections’ “baffling decision” to count 405 undated or incorrectly dated ballots.

The joint suit – which McCormick filed with the Republican Party of Pennsylvania and the Republican National Committee – alleges that Tuesday’s board decision is “legally flawed” and contradicts a Pennsylvania Supreme Court Decision which prevented Philadelphia County from counting undated ballots just two weeks ago.

Fitzpatrick said several counties won by Casey — including Bucks but also Center and Philadelphia — voted or publicly stated their intention to count undated ballots in defiance of the high court’s ruling.

“We’re just asking them to respect the clear ruling of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court,” Fitzpatrick said during Thursday’s call.

Pennsylvania RNC and GOP separately appeal to Supreme Court to block counting of undated ballots in the 67 counties of Pennsylvania.

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley criticized Casey for using “fraudulent lawyers” and “undemocratic schemes” to “steal a Senate seat he decisively lost.”