Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, whose public pledge to “violate” election laws and vote to count ineligible ballots made her a national figure of scorn, apologized to the 1,000 or so angry citizens who showed up at Wednesday’s commission meeting.
“I made a mistake, and because I am an elected official, I am held to a far higher standard than everybody else. So, to the citizens I serve, I apologize, and I will continue to work hard for you and endeavor to not make such a mistake again,” she told the crowd.
They were not appeased.
Commissioners Chair Diane Ellis-Marseglia
“Diane, you blatantly thumbed your nose at the voters of Bucks County,” said Fran Grous during the public comment period.
Last Thursday, while conducting her duties as a member of the Election Board, Ellis-Marseglia voted to count some 600 ineligible mail ballots. Explaining her decision, which ignored the clear directions of the courts, she said, “I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country. People violate laws any time they want. So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.”
While Ellis-Marseglia did offer an apology, she offered little in the way of remorse. Instead, she complained about the negative press, and claimed to have received profanity-laced phone calls and emails.
She also claimed her comments were in reference to provisional ballots, not mail-in ballots. And, she added, the comment about ignoring precedent “was referring to the United States Supreme Court and the precedent that has been lost on many issues, including Roe v. Wade.”
That remark inspired boos from the attendees. Ellis-Marseglia gaveled them into silence.
During public comment, many called upon Ellis-Marseglia and her fellow Democratic commissioner Bob Harvie — who also voted to count the ineligible ballots — to resign.
“We’ve been called election deniers, racists, conspiracy theorists,” said Bucks County resident Beth Curcio said. “Did I leave anything out? We, the people of Bucks County, are fed up. Yes, you’re hearing us loud and clear. You cheat and steal our elections. It’s exactly why you want machines and mail-in ballots because Bucks is really red, and you don’t like it, and you can’t win.”
Rochelle Porto also called on the two to resign, adding, “Josef Stalin said many years ago, ‘Elections matter, but who counts the votes matters more.’ You didn’t like the outcome, so you decided it was OK to break the law.”
Christine Figueroa told the commissions that she “wasn’t one of those election deniers in 2020,” but now she has questions about how elections are handled.
“After seeing what happened this time around, there can be no denying that certain people on the left have honed these cheating skills for a very long time before we woke up to it.”
An online petition to impeach the two Democratic Bucks County Commissioners being circulated by resident Skip Salvesen had more than 3,000 signatures as of Wednesday.
Bucks County GOP Chair Pat Poprik was blunt: “Something’s wrong with how we’re conducting elections in Bucks County.”
“I stood at that Lower Bucks [early voting] office for eight hours, and to see people voting on a table, with no dividers, no chairs, under an awning, it’s incredible. That’s not our county. Or it shouldn’t be.
“Now it’s become the laughing stock and embarrassment,” Poprik added.
Doug Marshall of Lower Makefield said there is a “silver lining” in this situation. For the 2020 election, there was “always plausible deniability” that it was stolen. “But now, there is really no denying that the Democratic Party believes in power by any means necessary. And that is almost as significant a victory as the results of this election.”
Voting registration activist Scott Presler said they’d “flipped Bucks County from blue to red, and for the first time in modern history, there are more registered Republicans than Democrats here. Number two, voters were disenfranchised in this county.” He thanked RNC chairs Michael Whatley and Lara Trump for suing the county to add three more days to early voting. He then read Ellis-Marseglia’s quote on precedents not mattering.
Presler pointed out that the court had already ruled that misdated and undated ballots could not be counted, and “you knew that going into the meeting.”
He also told the two commissioners, “I have a message: “Peacefully, we are coming for your seat in 2027 if you don’t resign today.”
“Have at it,” Ellis-Marseglia replied.
