Here’s what the Pennsylvania Senate vote count looks like

The Pennsylvania Senate race between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick is heading to a recount — a week after the Associated Press called the race for McCormick.

The Pennsylvania Department of State called for a recount Wednesday because the distance between Casey and McCormick was less than half a percentage point, the margin for a statewide recount. As of Wednesday evening, Casey was ahead of McCormick by almost 30,000 votes.

This is the eighth time since the automatic recount law was introduced in 2004, and the fourth time the state has actually begun recounting votes. Interestingly, McCormick was the candidate in two of these four recounts, with the most recent coming in his 2022 GOP Senate primary against Mehmet Oz, which Oz won by less than 1,000 votes.

As counties prepare to recount votes in the Casey-McCormick race, they are finishing tallying about 80,000 votes that have not yet been counted in the state. However, many of them are fleeting cards that can be discarded.

The recount will take several days, but the actual vote counting process should be faster than it initially was after ballots were cast last Tuesday. The numbers can be expected to change slightly – a recount will mean that some of the votes previously read by machines will be checked by humans – and both campaigns will likely be closely watching every vote, and maybe even fighting for it. However, the likelihood of the result changing after a recount is low.

Here’s what you need to know about Pennsylvania’s vote recount, based on interviews with lawyers, election officials and other experts.

Will Pennsylvania Recount?

Yes. Secretary of State Al Schmidt announced the recount Wednesday evening.

Who decides on a recount?

The recount is required by Pennsylvania law, which requires the Secretary of State to order a recount by 5 p.m. on the second Thursday after the election.

This is today. However, the secretary must give candidates 24 hours’ notice before ordering a recount, which is why the announcement came on Wednesday.

Why is there a recount?

Under Pennsylvania law, a recount occurs automatically if a candidate’s margin of victory is within 0.5% of the total votes. This threshold is set in a 2004 state law.

In the current GOP Senate race, Casey and McCormick were separated by less than 30,000 votes as of Wednesday morning, or less than half a percentage point of the more than 6.9 million votes cast.

A recount can also be initiated by court order or when voters dispute the result. In this case, the statewide recount is due to the closeness of the race.

How uncommon is a recount?

It’s quite uncommon. The 2004 recount bill had only been introduced seven times before McCormick was involved in this and one of these races:

Five of the seven are judicial races, which often feature multiple candidates who can split votes, especially if they are running for multiple seats.

Did there have to be a recount?

NO. The second-place candidate may refuse to have the votes recounted. This request must be made in writing and sent to the Secretary of State by noon on the second Wednesday after the election.

Of the seven recounts, candidates in three races declined. Casey hasn’t waived the recount, so we’ll continue.

The State Department estimates the recount will cost about $1 million in state funds, about the same as the previous recount.

When does the recount start?

The recount of votes must take place by the third Wednesday after the election, i.e. in this case by November 20. Schmidt said counties could start recounting once they finish counting the remaining ballots.

When does the recount end?

The recount should be completed by noon next Tuesday, November 26.

Counties must submit recount results to the Department of State by noon the next day, Nov. 27, and the secretary then releases the results.

This means it could take just over three weeks from Election Day for the recount results to be finalized and published.

How are votes actually counted?

The law requires that votes be counted on different machines than those on which they were counted the first time. (That is, a different type or model of machine, not just physically different.)

Typically, in-person results are counted using relatively sluggish scanners at polling places, while absentee ballots are counted using high-speed scanners. Many counties plan to apply high-speed scanners for in-person review of results and a variety of high-speed scanners for absentee ballots during the recount.

Counties must apply different scanners than they did the first time around, so absentee ballots will have to go through a different type of scanner than they initially did. Some counties already have enough equipment to do this, while others will rent it.

The vote total will change. Why? What is the difference in conversion?

Running the same ballots through different machines will produce slightly different results in some cases, and the numbers will almost certainly shift slightly when recounted.

This happens because of random markings on voters’ ballots, which may be flagged by one device for human review but not by another. For example, if a voter started voting for one candidate, circled it with an X, and then voted for another, the machine could count the intended vote or spit it out as an “overvote.”

These ballots are then subjected to human review to determine voter intent.

Could a recount change the final result?

It’s possible. As the numbers change, each candidate could gain hundreds or even thousands more votes statewide. This is not “finding” votes. This is just part of the conversion process.

The candidate who leads in the vote count before the recount is almost always the winner after the recount.

What about manual recalculation? Are votes counted manually?

Counties could count votes by hand, but that is a long and tedious process. Most counties will want to avoid this – the ones they handle manually are the ones that need to be checked to determine voter intent. Otherwise, they will apply scanners to quickly speed up the process. Counties can choose to count votes manually if they want, but it is not required.

Jonathan Lai is a former Inquirer reporter. This story uses material from his previous reporting explaining the recount process.