Now that the Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS) has ordered a recount in the U.S. Senate contest, Dave McCormick campaign is developing a strategy to ensure that it maintains its advantage in the race.
When the Commonwealth’s 67 counties returned their unofficial results to DOS on Tuesday, Commonwealth Secretary Al Schmidt was obligated to call for a recount because state election law provides for a mandatory recount if there is a 0.5% difference between candidates in the unofficial results.
McCormick’s advantage over the incumbent Democrat Bob Casey Jr. currently has 29,338 votes, or 0.43%, according to DOS. The New York Times website shows Republicans leading with 26,486 votes. Each total requires recalculation.
“The first thing I want to make clear right away is that there is one inescapable truth in all of this, and that is that when the counting ends, Dave will win by a majority of 10 out of 1,000 votes,” said the chief strategist Mark Harris. “It won’t be close. We are well beyond the scope of changes in vote recounts and other adjudication processes. So the first point to make is that Bob Casey has no track. Math just isn’t available to him.
“Since 2000, no U.S. Senate candidate who has received more than 500 votes, let alone 5,000 or 10 out of 1,000 votes, has resulted in a change in the result, and in Pennsylvania the average change is less than 100 votes per recount across the board. standing. It is Senator Casey’s right to recount the votes, but there is a 0% chance that the outcome of this race will change.
The State Department estimated there were still 80,000 uncounted ballots remaining across the commonwealth, but Harris stressed that was the “absolute maximum.”
“They’re going to continue to get anywhere from a few thousand to a few thousand votes as we move forward, just because of what they have left,” Harris said. “So once again, the inescapable reality is that tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians voted more for Dave McCormick than for Bob Casey.”
James FitzpatrickMcCormick campaign adviser, discussed the timing of the recount, which could begin today at 5:30 p.m. in all 67 counties. Some districts may start at this time, others may start on Friday. He noted that work in Philadelphia County may not start until Wednesday or later next week.
Counties must complete the recount by noon on Nov. 26 and submit the results to DOS by noon the next day.
Discussing the campaign’s legal strategy, Fitzpatrick announced that various GOP committees across the state have filed a motion for emergency relief, asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to affirm its ruling that the postage date requirement is mandatory and must be enforced in this election. He also said that members of the McCormick campaign filed a lawsuit on the matter in Bucks County last night and are prepared to file suit in any county that does not follow the law.
He also addressed allegations that the Casey campaign is trying to count the votes of unregistered voters.
“There have been numerous instances across the Commonwealth in which the Casey campaign has advocated for (county) boards of elections on the issue: the votes of unregistered voters who cast provisional ballots should be counted. This is a completely frivolous and baseless argument,” Fitzpatrick said. “Currently, the Casey campaign’s position is that it is up to them to confirm whether a voter is registered or not, not taking the word of the local board of elections and the SURE (Statewide Uniform Voter Registry) system.
“We think this is a completely extreme argument and very much outside the mainstream. Everyone knows that electoral commissions and the SURE system decide who is registered and who is not. In summary, the votes of unregistered voters cannot be counted in any way. Any attempt by the Casey campaign or any local election board to legitimize this frivolous argument will be met with litigation.”
Casey’s campaign countered the McCormick campaign’s claims that it was trying to count ballots from unregistered voters, calling them “categorically untrue.” It notes that many boards of elections across the state incorrectly determined whether voters who cast provisional ballots were registered or not.
“No one is trying to count votes from people who were not registered. This is categorically untrue,” the lawyer said Adam Bonin who works on behalf of the Casey campaign. “This is a blatant attempt to lie to the GOP and distract attention from its efforts to disenfranchise Pennsylvanians by discarding the votes of registered voters.”
The campaign challenged various commissions over their rejection of provisional ballots due to lack of signatures or declarations from election judges or lack of a secrecy envelope, citing possible violations of voters’ rights.
“While McCormick and his allies work to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters and spread disinformation, we are working to make sure the voices of Pennsylvanians are heard,” he said Tiernan DonohueBob Casey’s Senate campaign manager.
updated to include quotes from Bonin and Donohue
