Court records show that attorneys for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick filed and then withdrew a request for a Philadelphia judge to intervene to prevent election officials from counting provisional ballots without adequate oversight by Republicans.
McCormick’s campaign filed the lawsuit Thursday after the Associated Press declared him the winner of the Senate race by a narrow margin over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. Casey has not budged, saying his campaign has up to 100,000 provisional and overseas absentee ballots left to count.
“The number of provisional ballots expected in areas that favor Senator Casey, such as Philadelphia and its suburbs, is further evidence that this race is too close to call,” said Casey campaign spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel. “As the McCormick campaign acknowledged in its lawsuit this morning, counting these ballots could have an “impact on the outcome of the election.” With over 100,000 votes still to be counted, we will continue to make sure the voices of Pennsylvanians are heard.”
McCormick’s campaign said there were about 20,000 provisional ballots in Philadelphia, arguing that the campaign should be allowed to issue “global challenges” to vast groups of provisional ballots with similar discrepancies.
McCormick’s lawyers noted that because Republicans had no candidate in most of the city’s races, the GOP was entitled to have 27 fewer observers in the vote-counting process.
They also asked the court to order the invalidation of provisional ballots if voters who returned them requested absentee ballots. The filing indicated that such provisional ballots should not be counted until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in an appeal of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling. In that case, the state supreme court ruled that voters who learn that their mail-in ballots were rejected must obtain permission to vote on provisional ballots.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in voters’ favor, allowing the state Supreme Court to decide to keep provisional ballots in place, the Republican Party filed a motion to block enforcement of the decision, arguing that the ruling violated the U.S. Constitution.
McCormick held a news conference in Pittsburgh on Friday where he thanked supporters and expressed sympathy for Casey, noting he had experience losing close elections — McCormick lost the 2022 GOP primary for U.S. Senate to Mehmet Oz by less than 1,000 votes.
“We obviously had an incredibly close race, but there is no doubt that this is family and Senator Casey is a man who has served this great community with honor,” McCormick said. “On election night, we knew we had won because the math was clear and Sen. Casey couldn’t win, and the AP certainly saw that when calling the race yesterday. But Senator Casey will have to deal with this, so I wish him and his family all the best and thank them for their service.
If the vote margin between Casey and McCormick is 0.5% or less, it would trigger a recount under Pennsylvania law.
Details of the hearing, which took place Friday in Philadelphia, were not immediately available online.
(This article was updated on November 8, 2024 at 3:20 p.m. when the lawsuit was withdrawn)
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