A heated dispute unfolds between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick over the outcome of Pennsylvania's Senate race.
According to Fox News, Casey's campaign is accusing McCormick of attempting to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters through legal challenges targeting provisional ballots while refusing to concede despite trailing in the vote count.
The race has entered a critical phase, with McCormick leading by 29,338 votes, representing a margin of 0.43% as of Wednesday afternoon. This narrow margin falls below the 0.5% threshold that triggers an automatic recount under Pennsylvania law. McCormick has already declared victory, but the situation remains complex due to ongoing legal challenges and vote-counting procedures.
McCormick's campaign has initiated two lawsuits against the Philadelphia County Board of Elections and its commissioners.
The legal challenges focus on approximately 15,000-20,000 provisional ballots still being counted. These ballots could potentially impact the final outcome of the election, making them a crucial point of contention between the campaigns.
The Republican candidate is specifically requesting permission to challenge groups of provisional ballots that share similar deficiencies. These include issues such as missing or mismatched signatures and the absence of secrecy envelopes. The legal strategy has drawn sharp criticism from Casey's camp.
Casey's campaign manager, Tiernan Donohue, stated:
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. Senator 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.
The Associated Press called the race for McCormick on Thursday afternoon when he led by more than 30,000 votes. Despite approximately 91,000 votes remaining uncounted at that time, the AP determined that the outstanding ballots from Casey-supporting areas would not be sufficient to overcome the deficit.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer initially hesitated to include McCormick in the new-senator orientation, citing the thousands of uncounted votes.
However, following pressure from Republican senators, Schumer reversed his position on Tuesday and extended invitations to both McCormick and Democratic Senator-elect Ruben Gallego from Arizona.
The situation has been further complicated by recent legal developments regarding mail-in ballots. The state Supreme Court's October ruling in Genser v. Butler County allowed the counting of mail-in ballots that arrived on time but had missing or incorrect dates on their envelopes. In response, the state GOP and Republican National Committee have filed a petition requesting the court to overturn this decision.
The Pennsylvania Senate race continues to evolve as election officials work to complete the vote count while legal challenges proceed through the courts. McCormick maintains his lead of less than half a percentage point, placing the race within the automatic recount threshold.
The outcome hinges on several factors, including the resolution of McCormick's lawsuits regarding provisional ballots and the potential impact of the GOP's petition to overturn the state Supreme Court's mail-in ballot ruling. These developments will determine whether Casey's three-term tenure in the Senate comes to an end or continues for another term.
