Thread by @adambonin

November 22, 2013, 12:17 pm. This is the greatest election law picture I'm ever going to take, and one of my favorite stories I get to tell about this ridiculously fortunate career I've had. It's a story about how Every Vote Matters, but better. And there's some great cameos. 1/

That's Jimmy DiPlacido. In 2013 he was working for the American Red Cross, but on nights and weekends he was one of the @AbingtonDems trying to flip a swing township from red to blue. He worked his ass off. And on Election Night, it was a 517-517 tie. 2/

The next morning I got the call, because partisan control of the board was going to be decided here. A very nice couple named Ben and Karen were tracking things. (Ben was already a commissioner.) I showed up on Friday for the tabulation, and that's where things got weird. 3/

Suddenly, Jimmy was down 517-515. Two absentee ballots from Ward 4-1 which were counted in his favor at polling places on Election Night (this was pre-Act 77) were no longer part of his tally. Two ballots ... just disappeared. But there was a third as well. 4/

On that third ballot, the voter X'd to vote straight-ticket Democrat. (Again, pre-Act 77.) Also X'd the box next to every Democratic candidate. And in the column for write-in votes, X'd in every box. And the tabulators on Friday thought the third X cancelled the first two out. 5/

I thought that was wrong, but that still left Jimmy one vote short. Thank goodness, the next Tuesday, 11/12, a county elections worker found the two missing ballots—one straight D, one empty—which had been buried in the bottom of the box returned from that polling place. 6/

So now we're down 517-516, at which point we petitioned the Board of Elections to recanvass this race to try to reverse the decision as to the one triple-X'd ballot.
Those commissioners? @JoshShapiroPA @_LeslieRichards and Bruce Castor (R). This guy. cnn.com/2021/02/10/pol… 7/

And the great news was that there was case law exactly on point, from PA Commonwealth Court in 2004. scholar.google.com/scholar_case?c… The Commissioners voted unanimously (yes, Castor too) per their solictor's advice to turn this from a nullity to a DiPlacido vote. We're tied, 517-517. 8/

So what happens in a tied election in PA? Under our law, 25 P.S. § 3168, we cast lots. (Lots: it's not just for Purim!). In Montgomery County, it meant that numbers 1-30 would be printed in 26-point Calibri on identical squares, placed into a canister for drawing. High # wins. 9/

Like audience members at a magic show, the R attorney and I inspected the slips of paper for folds. We looked at the canister. The other attorney asked, "when the first number is drawn, shouldn't it be put back into the canister?" Mathematically, I knew it didn't matter.... 10/

But it wasn't worth fighting. Fine. Time to draw. By agreement, Jimmy drew first, a rainbow loom bracelet on his right wrist from his 8-year-old daughter for good luck. He gets up, reaches high into the canister, looks at the slip, then shows it to the crowd. It's the 30. 11/

Holy shit. And I will tell you, in my life, I've never heard a sound like the Republican half of the room absolutely deflating as Commissioner Richards stated, "Number 30 was picked by Mr. DiPlacido." On our side of the room, restrained giddiness. The 30 went back in the jar. 12/

His opponent drew the 3, and walked straight out of the room, followed by her supporters. She took the case to court, where on 12/6/13 a trial judge confirmed that the Board of Elections decision was right. And that ended it. But the story's not quite over yet. 13/

You know where @JoshShapiroPA is now, still fighting to ensure that every vote is counted.
@_LeslieRichards became @PennDOTSec in 2015, and @SEPTA CEO/GM in 2020.
That deputy solicitor, Nicole Forzato, is now a trial judge in Chester County. 14/

That couple, Ben and Karen? @RepBenSanchez now holds the same state legislative seat that @JoshShapiroPA and @MadeleineDean once did. And Karen (@KarGeldSanchez) is Montgomery County Controller.

As for Jimmy ... 15/

.@CommishJimmyD still serves the people of Ward 4 as a Abington Twp Commissioner. He's vice chair.
In 2017, he won 682-282.
In 2021, unopposed.
Abington is thriving. He's also Deputy Clerk of Courts. But there's no story at all without those 517 voters.
Every single one. 16/16

[Quick postscript: I really should have said more about Michael Barbiero, longtime chair of the @AbingtonDems. He was the organizing force behind all these victories, turning Abington from a swing township to a Democratic stronghold, and his work should be highlighted.]

[Second postscript: three scanned documents I found in going through my old emails. First two should be self-explanatory; the third is the ad I ran in the program for the 2014 @AbingtonDems spring banquet, which I had completely forgotten about.]