Pennsylvania Senate Race Heads To A Recount

The results of a hotly contested Senate race in Pennsylvania are headed to an automatic recount after neither candidate won by a large enough margin, Pennsylvania’s top elections official announced Wednesday.

The Associated Press declared Republican Dave McCormick, a former hedge fund manager, the winner over Sen. Bob Casey (D) on Nov. 7, two days after voting concluded. If officially certified, McCormick’s win would grant Republicans, who have already retaken the Senate, a 53-seat majority in the upper legislative chamber.

But Casey has refused to accept the AP’s race call, citing the tens of thousands of provisional, mail-in and absentee ballots that have yet to be counted.

What’s more, Pennsylvania law mandates a recount if an election is won by less than half of a percentage point. And on Wednesday, with more than 80,000 provisional, mail-in, and absentee ballots still outstanding, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt declared that the “unofficial results” mandated a recount, since McCormick’s lead is still only 0.43%.

“Senator-Elect McCormick’s lead is insurmountable, which the AP made clear in calling the race,” McCormick campaign spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory said in a statement responding to the recount announcement. “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.”

Schmidt, the top elections official, estimated that the recount will cost the state a little over $1 million.

McCormick welcomed a recount in his 2022 Senate primary loss to Mehmet Oz ― a recount that cost Pennsylvania more than $1 million.

Casey’s campaign has also noted that while Republicans are now suing to throw out absentee ballots that were received on time but that were missing a handwritten date, in 2022, McCormick sought to include such ballots in the official count.

“David McCormick’s hypocritical reversal on undated mail ballots is further proof of his determination to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters while counties continue to count votes in this razor-thin election,” Casey campaign manager Tiernan Donohue said in a statement on Thursday. “Senator Casey’s priority continues to be making sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard as our democratic process unfolds.”

The elections boards in each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties must begin their recounts by next Wednesday and complete it by Nov. 26. Once the recount has been completed, each county must submit the results to the state by noon on Nov. 27.

Pennsylvania requires counties to recount any ballots with “overvotes,” in which a voter selected more than the required number of candidates, by hand. A manual recount is likewise recommended for ballots with stray markings or “undervotes,” in which voters leave their ballots blank for a given contest.