I met Michael and his buddies at the Penn Taproom. When he found out what I do for a living, he said, "What are you doing here? The election is over."
To which I replied, "Try telling that to Bob Casey."
Here in Pennsylvania, the signs have come down, the airwaves are mercifully free of political ads, but in a few counties, including Bucks, the election just won’t end, because one sore loser in the senate won’t let it.
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Sen. Bob Casey is a Keystone State political scion, his father having been a popular governor, and he insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that there are still enough ballots to put him over the top in a race that has already been called for his opponent, Sen.-elect Dave McCormick.
Here in Bucks County, and a few others, the election commissioners have decided that they don’t care that the state’s Supreme Court has ruled that undated or unsigned ballots can’t be counted. They are just counting them anyway.
Take commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia who said last week, "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. There’s nothing more important than counting votes."
Put another way, "laws shmaws."
And oh, guess what, and by the way, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is controlled by Democrats. As one son of Pennsylvania might say, "Not a joke."
As the evening progressed, I met two guys named Tom. For literary purposes, I wish they had different names, but it is what it is. Both are in their 60s, one retired from Dell, one from Amtrak,. They couldn’t have more different politics, but they agree it's time for Casey to give it up and concede.
Amtrak Tom, the Republican, was discernibly upset about it, "I’m angry," he said, "this is bullsh--, the courts said these ballots they want to count aren’t legal, that’s it, it’s over."
The other Tom agreed, although he didn’t seem nearly as upset about it. But told me, "Come on, the writing is on the wall."
Both men were somewhat surprised by the election's outcome, but not shocked. "There were so many Trump signs," Democrat Tom told me. "It’s Pennsylvania. We care about politics, but I’d never seen anything like it."
The other Tom chimed in that "conservatives aren’t loud about it, we don’t tend to do yard signs, but this time was different."
Later in the evening, I met Dave, a lawyer with a shock of gray hair and a kind face who I have no doubt has charmed a few juries in his day. Once again, two guys from Philly with the same first name were talking.
"In the law there has to be a line," he said. "I don’t know how I feel about ballots being dated or not, but signatures? If that's the line, it's reasonable, that’s the law, and the law doesn’t work without lines you can’t cross."
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Dave is a Democrat, he’s not happy that Trump won, but he also knows that we live in a democracy and in a democracy sometimes your side loses.
If there were people in Pennsylvania willing to have Bob Casey’s back on his lost cause of overturning the senate race, guys like Dave would be chief among them, but there really aren’t, there is no groundswell of folks who think Casey actually won.
Here in Doylestown, a blue dot in a purple county, life goes on. This isn’t 2016 or 2020. Nobody seems to think the sky is falling because Trump, and yes, McCormick won the election.
In those prior years, maybe Casey could have preyed upon the anger of the losing side and caused a ruckus of Democrats to protest on his behalf, but not this year. Both sides just seem to want this election to be over, and so it is.
This week, Pennsylvania will spend a million dollars on a recount that everybody not named Casey knows is just a waste of time and money, a last gasp of legal wrangling. But nobody seems to think Casey is a victim here, he’s just the loser.
The game is over, everyone knows it, and thankfully, most people seem convinced that this election was free, fair and decisive. That’s democracy. Sometimes you win, or in Casey’s case, sometimes you just lose fair and square, and whining can’t do anything to change that.
