PITTSBURGH — Late Wednesday evening, the Pennsylvania Department of State said an automatic recount was triggered in the state’s U.S. Senate race between incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and Republican Dave McCormick, who is the apparent senator-elect. This was one day after McCormick spent his first day at the U.S. Capitol in an orientation meeting with colleagues and setting up his Senate office, nearly a week after the Associated Press called the race in his favor.
Outgoing Senate majority leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) initially said McCormick would not be invited to the long-held tradition of orienting incoming U.S. senators after Election Day. Later, Schumer relented when he faced an onslaught of criticisms from sitting senators of both parties for his unprecedented exclusion of McCormick.
Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) posted on X that “while we are losing a good person and colleague in Senator Bob Casey, I believe the Senate will be gaining another good man in Senator-Elect David McCormick.”
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) posted, “In 2018 my race wasn’t called for 6 days. I jumped on a redeye to DC to make senate orientation—I learned so much and made lasting relationships that week.” She added that McCormick will be senator for Pennsylvania and “should be invited to orientation and start learning the job.”
Casey has put up nearly every-other-daily vignettes posts on X, dressed in a sweater and in front of a map of the state saying he is still waiting for the final election results to come in.
McCormick earned approximately 30,000 more votes than Casey, which is just under the half-percent margin that triggers an automatic recount in the state.
The data on the Philadelphia Board of Elections website released late Wednesday afternoon shows Casey was contesting ballots that came from non-registered voters. It’s an action that is both unprecedented and illegal.
Seth Bluestein, a nationally respected election administrator who currently serves as the City Commissioner, one of three members (two Democrats and one Republican) of the Philadelphia Board of Elections, said, “Our provisional ballot canvas was opened to observers from both the Republican and Democratic parties. Any observer has the right to challenge a decision of one our staff, and the board of elections will adjudicate those challenged on Friday.”
There are approximately 50,000 potential ballots still to review.
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Democrat allies in both the western and eastern halves of the state on the condition of anonymity have privately said Casey should concede because ultimately, the voters are not there. Experts estimate it will cost Pennsylvania taxpayers $2 million to conduct a recount.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) has not commented on the race. In December 2000, a future Pennsylvania governor and then sitting chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ed Rendell, called on Al Gore to concede his race for president after all legal efforts had been exhausted and ballots counted in Florida in his close race with then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
