HARRISBURG, Pa. — On Thursday, Republicans initiated legal action in Pennsylvania amidst the ongoing vote tally for the U.S. Senate race, which is contested between incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey and Republican contender David McCormick. As the campaigns gear up for a potential recount, efforts are being made to influence ballot-counting decisions in various counties.
The lawsuits aim to prevent counties from including mail-in ballots in their counts if voters failed to provide a date on the return envelope or entered an incorrect date. These actions from the GOP could be just the start of numerous legal challenges before the final results of the Senate election are tallied, particularly since the race appears poised for a state-mandated recount.
McCormick was declared the frontrunner according to early projections made by various news outlets last week, following an assessment that insufficient ballots remained in areas where Casey was performing well to permit a momentum shift. As it stands, McCormick holds a lead of approximately 26,000 votes out of over 6.9 million cast, which falls within the 0.5% margin required to initiate an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania regulations.
The national and state Republican organizations have petitioned the state Supreme Court, arguing against ballot counting in counties, asserting that these actions breach recent court directives and contradict established legal standards upheld in state law. Lawrence Tabas, chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, expressed his discontent, describing the situation in the counties as “absolute lawlessness.”
Democratic-majority electoral boards in Philadelphia, Bucks County, and Centre County have opted to include the disputed ballots in their counts, according to the lawsuits filed. Historically, more Democrats have utilized mail-in voting compared to their Republican counterparts, and past Democratic leadership has shown support for counting ballots that are deemed to fail on minor administrative technicalities.
“We’re going to get sued either way, I’d rather be on the side of counting ballots than not counting them,” stated Democrat Robert Harvie, a Bucks County Commissioner, before voting to include the ballots.
Simultaneously, McCormick’s campaign, along with both state and national GOP entities, has filed a lawsuit in Bucks County to challenge the local election board’s decision to count 405 ballots that they argue should be excluded. This stance starkly contrasts with McCormick’s previous position during the 2022 Republican primary in which he sought to close the vote gap with Dr. Mehmet Oz, a celebrity surgeon.
In previous rulings, lower courts have viewed the disqualification of such ballots as unconstitutional or illegal; however, higher court rulings, including a decision from the state Supreme Court on November 1, have obstructed these lower court findings.
Meanwhile, counties were busy on Thursday with ongoing processing of tens of thousands of provisional ballots, as well as addressing legal challenges from the campaigns of Casey and McCormick. Provisional ballots are issued at polling locations on Election Day and are set apart from regular ballots when election officials require more time to validate a voter’s eligibility.
On Wednesday, Al Schmidt, the Republican Secretary of State and a close aide to Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro, announced that the preliminary vote counts have triggered a mandatory statewide recount and stated that counties reported over 80,000 uncounted provisional, mail-in, and absentee ballots.
The deadline for counties to complete the recount process is noon on November 26. This procedure mainly involves running paper ballots through high-speed scanners, an act predicted by experienced electoral officials to yield only minimal changes to the overall outcome.
This week, both candidates, Casey and McCormick, found themselves in Washington, D.C. Casey participated in official Senate business and cast votes on the floor, while McCormick took part in Senate orientation and caucus meetings, part of the transition following the Republican Party’s regained control of the U.S. Senate in last week’s elections.
