The Bucks County Commissioners meeting was packed with GOP activists demanding the officials resign

GOP activists flooded Wednesday’s meeting of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, loudly calling for Democratic board members to resign and launching a far-reaching impeachment attempt over board members’ decisions last week to defy court orders regarding mail-in and provisional ballots.

The Democratic-led county was one of several across the state to vote last week to count undated absentee ballots — despite Pennsylvania Supreme Court rulings that those ballots could not be counted — as litigation over the requirement continued.

The state’s highest court upheld its order on Monday, blocking the district from counting votes, but Bucks remains at the center of a firestorm fueled by backlash to Democratic Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia’s viral comments.

Ellis-Marseglia, justifying her vote to count provisional ballots that were missing one of two required voter signatures, declared that judicial precedent no longer matters in the U.S. and stated that she was taking her vote to return attention of the court. “People break the law whenever they want,” she said.

Ellis-Marseglia said this week that her words had been misinterpreted and apologized for the confusion they caused. She opened Wednesday’s meeting by addressing the controversy and repeatedly apologizing, while many attendees protested and booed.

Her reference to irrelevant judicial precedent, she said, was a comment on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Ellis-Marseglia said she has faced threats and vitriol since her comments went viral.

“We all say things out of order. We all make mistakes. I made a mistake,” she said.

Ellis-Marseglia’s comments have become a flashpoint for GOP anger over the county’s decisions amid fierce state scrutiny of the vote count as a Senate recount continues.

Democratic Sen. Bob Casey trails Republican Dave McCormick by more than 17,000 votes.

Casey used standard legal procedures to fight to have as many remaining provisional and mail-in ballots counted as possible during the race, but county-level disputes over the ballots led to accusations from Republicans that Democrats were trying to ” steal” votes race.

“It’s a travesty that we have to be here today to make sure the law is followed,” Bucks County GOP Chairman Pat Poprick said at a news conference before the public meeting.

Pressure to give up

Bucks County is one of only three counties in the state that has opted for Casey in the Senate race, but also for President-elect Donald Trump in the presidential election.

On Wednesday, divisions in society were apparent.

Hundreds of residents packed the meeting, filling the 200-seat conference room in Doylestown and moving to a separate room in the county courthouse. Many of them carried signs calling Ellis-Marseglia and fellow Democratic commissioner Bob Harvie tyrants, and some called for their arrest.

Throughout the meeting, the crowd often erupted in shouts of support for the speakers or outrage at the commissioners.

As commissioners concluded their meeting and left the chamber, many broke out in chants of “lock her up,” echoing Trump’s 2016 refrain regarding Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

When Scott Presler, an influential GOP politician who worked on GOP voter registration in Pennsylvania ahead of the election and a longtime peddler of false claims of voter fraud, entered the room, the crowd applauded. Attendees lined up to take photos with the influencer while waiting for the public meeting to begin.

“We will be running for your seat in 2027 if you don’t resign today,” Presler said during public comment, noting the year Ellis-Marseglia is expected to run for re-election.

In a video of the meeting, Ellis-Marseglia can be heard replying, “Have it.”

Over the course of two hours, dozens of people spoke publicly, bringing a slew of complaints about Ellis-Marseglia’s comments, the board’s votes and the way elections were conducted in Bucks County. Several claimed without evidence that last week’s episode proved that Democrats cheated in the election and will continue to cheat, reigniting false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Speakers frequently called for Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie to resign and frequently called for them to be prosecuted, although it is unlikely that their votes would be considered a violation of criminal law.

Both judges sat at the front of the room and occasionally made faces but rarely looked at the speakers as Ellis-Marseglia called out person by person at the podium. At one point, amid cries from the crowd about the speaker being cut off, commissioners called a five-minute recess and left the room.

“You should be removed from office. You should be prosecuted. Do the county a favor and resign,” said Joe Linus, a longtime employee of the Bucks County Board of Elections.

One of the speakers, Terry Warrington, rejected Ellis-Marseglia’s apology for her comments.

“Now we hear that you will work hard not to make these mistakes again – in public,” he said.

Beth Zigler of Milford Township used the meeting to call for hand counting of votes, a move that emerged after false claims of fraud in 2020, even though that method is less correct.

At times, the grievances went beyond the election and included broad grievances about Democratic leadership, including frustration over LGBTQ rights, immigration and crime rates.

Pressure for impeachment

Skip Salvaseen, a speaker at the GOP news conference, urged attendees to sign an online petition calling for the impeachment of Ellis-Marseglia and Harvie.

“Impeachment is the last step on a very long road, but the journey has begun,” Salvaseen said.

Any decision to impeach the officials will go through the Pennsylvania General Assembly and will be an uphill battle in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.

Poprick acknowledged in an interview that impeachment is unlikely, but said she hoped Wednesday’s outrage would send a clear message to commissioners.

She called the commissioners hypocrites for repeatedly criticizing Trump for failing to uphold the rule of law.

“I think you have to realize that your actions have serious consequences for voters and I don’t think they’ve thought about that, or if they have, they’ve ignored it,” she said.

State Rep. Joe Hogan (R., Bucks) said some state lawmakers have discussed filing articles of impeachment against Ellis-Marseglia, but “that’s not where we’re going to proceed.”

Instead, local lawmakers will let voters and law enforcement decide how to proceed.

“Ultimately, voters will decide what they will do,” Hogan added.

Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.