Prolonged Ballot Counting Delays Remaining Races in Critical States

While the vast majority of the 2024 election cycle is already over, several races remain technically undecided as delayed and corrupted ballot-counting processes have interfered with the results of several key contests.

As reported by The Hill, the irregularities are predominantly affecting the three crucial Rust Belt states known as “the blue wall:” Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. All three states saw critical races for the U.S. Senate this year, with two of the three being called for the Democrats while one has been called for the Republicans.

On Election Night, the Republican candidates were leading decisively in all three states. However, come the following morning, sudden late-night ballot drops led to the Democrats retaking the lead in Wisconsin and Michigan, echoing the manner in which sudden and likely fraudulent ballot drops changed the outcome of the 2020 election.

Eric Hovde, the Republican nominee for the Senate in Wisconsin, posted a video on X explaining how his lead vanished seemingly overnight.

“I was shocked by what unfolded on Election Night. At 1 AM, I was receiving calls of congratulations and, based on the models, it appeared I would win the Senate race,” said Hovde. “Then, at 4 AM, Milwaukee reported approximately 108,000 absentee ballots with Senator Baldwin receiving nearly 90 percent of those ballots. Statistically, this outcome seems improbable, as it didn’t match the patterns from same-day voting in Milwaukee, where I had received 22 percent of the votes.”

“Since last Wednesday, numerous parties reached out to me about voting inconsistencies such as certain precincts in Milwaukee having turnout of 150 percent of registered voters, and in some cases, over 200 percent,” Hovde continued, noting that “this was accomplished by same-day voter registration that surged by almost 50 percent on a rainy day.”

Hovde said that he will wait to see the full final results of the election, at which point he will decide his next course of action in dealing with the apparent voter fraud that took place.

In Pennsylvania, Republican challenger Dave McCormick has remained narrowly ahead of incumbent Senator Bob Casey (D-Penn.). Multiple outlets, including the Associated Press, NPR, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News, and many state and local outlets have all called the race for McCormick. But Casey has refused to concede, and several legal battles have emerged over which ballots should or shouldn’t be counted.

The Pennsylvania Department of State reports that McCormick leads with 3,380,310 votes statewide to Casey’s 3,350,972, a margin of just under 30,000 votes, or 0.43%. Although Casey declined to pursue a recount, Secretary of State Al Schmidt (R-Penn.) announced last week that the state would conduct a recount, as the margin between them was just under the 0.5% threshold required for an automatic recount. The recount will begin on November 20th and will be completed on November 26th. The final results will be declared on November 27th.

A key part of the battle in Pennsylvania is the matter of including or refusing to include mail ballots that are either undated or have an incorrect or late date on them. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had previously ruled that such ballots could not be counted, but several county officials have openly broken the law and defied the state court’s ruling.

In the crucial county of Bucks County, two Democratic county commissioners voted to start counting the ineligible ballots. As previously reported, Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia (D-Penn.) explicitly said that she believes people should be allowed to “violate laws anytime they want,” and that “precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country.” She and fellow Democrat Robert Harvie voted in favor of the resolution, while Republican Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo voted against it.

In response, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley issued a statement condemning the Bucks County commissioners and declaring that the GOP would take legal action to further block the counting of these ballots.

“The RNC is filing a motion in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to ensure that Pennsylvania’s democratic process is not undermined by the inclusion of illegal ballots in the final vote count,” said Whatley. “Pennsylvanians are ready to move forward with Dave McCormick representing them in the Senate as Bob Casey torches whatever legacy he had with these anti-democratic schemes.”