Pennsylvania’s 67 counties will recount every vote cast in the tight U.S. Senate race between Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick.
Secretary of State Al Schmidt announced Wednesday the unofficial results are close enough to automatically trigger a recount under state law.
State law requires a recount when the margin is 0.5 percentage points or less.
As of late Wednesday evening, the Department of State website showed McCormick led Casey by 29,338 votes, or 0.48 points. McCormick had 3,380,310 votes, or 48.93%, Casey, 3,350,972, or 48.5%.
Schmidt cited the same figures in announcing the recount, shortly after 5 p.m. Casey had until noon Wednesday to waive his right to a recount. The Associated Press has declared McCormick the winner, but other organizations have declined to name one.
McCormick, believing he’s won, attended Senate orientation sessions on Monday in Washington, D.C.
McCormick campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth McCormick criticized Casey for refusing to admit defeat.
"Senator-elect McCormick’s lead is insurmountable, which the AP made clear in calling the race,” McCormick said in a statement. “A recount will be a waste of time and taxpayer money, but it is Senator Casey’s prerogative. Senator-elect McCormick knows what it’s like to lose an election and is sure Senator Casey will eventually reach the right conclusion."
The Department of State said county election officials reported 60,366 uncounted provisional ballots and 20,155 uncounted mail-in and absentee ballots by Tuesday as official counts continued, a total of 80,521. They includes all ballots that county boards of elections have not determined are valid or eligible to be counted, the department said.
Many provisional ballots probably won’t count. If all the ballots counted, Casey would need 51,183 votes, or 63.6%, of all outstanding ballots just to tie.
In three days of counting this week, Casey has received about 60% of the counted ballots.
Earlier in the day, Casey campaign manager Tiernan Donahue criticized McCormick’s strategy.
“David McCormick and his allies are trying to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters with litigation designed to throw out large tranches of votes that they’ve admitted in legal filings could impact the outcome of the election,” Donahue said. “Sen. Casey wants all Pennsylvanians’ voices to be heard as local county election officials continue to count votes. This democratic process must be allowed to play out to determine the result of this election.”
McCormick has asked a Philadelphia court judge to allow his campaign to challenge large groups of the city’s provisional ballots that have the same flaws. His suit said the city had between 15,000 and 20,000 provisional ballots that could determine the election’s outcome.
Most counties are done or almost done with official counts. They must begin recounts no later than Wednesday, finish them by noon on Nov. 26 and report results by noon Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving.
The recount is expected to cost taxpayers $1 million, the department estimated.
Close contests triggered automatic recounts seven times before including in the 2022 Republican U.S. Senate primary between McCormick and Mehmet Oz. Oz won by 950 votes. Only three other times did a recount happen.
None of the previous recounts reversed the outcome.
