GOP, McCormick sue over undated ballots ahead of Pa.'s US Senate race recount
Sen.-elect Dave McCormick and his allies have filed legal action to block Pennsylvania counties from counting undated or misdated mail-in ballots in his narrowly won contest against incumbent Sen. Bob Casey.
The court challenges deal with a relatively small number of ballots in Philadelphia and Bucks and Centre counties, McCormick’s campaign staff estimate, and they say the dispute will have no bearing on the outcome of the race.
Wednesday: Pa.'s U.S. Senate race between Bob Casey and Dave McCormick heads to a recount
What’s at stake, Republicans contend, is public confidence that only legitimate votes are included in election results.
“Whether the votes tallied in the race for a seat in the U.S. Senate are legitimate is a matter of national importance,” attorneys for the Republican National Committee and state GOP wrote in their Thursday application to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
As of Thursday afternoon, the unofficial tally put McCormick ahead of Casey by about 26,000 votes, which attorneys for the GOP candidate call an “insurmountable margin.” The Pennsylvania Department of State estimates that about 80,500 ballots remain uncounted across the commonwealth, including roughly 60,300 provisional ballots and more than 20,100 mail-in ballots.
The Associated Press declared McCormick the winner of the race against Casey last week. However, the three-term Democratic incumbent has refused to concede and is exercising his right to a statewide recount, which was legally mandated because of the thin margin of victory but which Casey could've waived.
The taxpayer-funded recount, announced Wednesday, will have to wrap up by Nov. 26 and will come with an projected cost of more than $1 million.
This is the eighth time a Pennsylvania election recount has been triggered after candidates finish within 0.5 percentage points of each other. Three of the defeated candidates in these previous cases waived their right to the recount, and of the four that have proceeded, none has overturned the outcome, Secretary of State Al Schmidt told reporters Thursday.
Casey’s campaign on Thursday charged McCormick with hypocrisy for the new legal actions, citing the GOP candidate’s support for counting undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots during the 2022 Senate primary that he lost to Mehmet Oz.
McCormick’s changed stance is “further proof of his determination to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters while counties continue to count votes in this razor-thin election,” Tiernan Donohue, Casey’s campaign manager, said in a prepared statement.
The Casey campaign has also interpreted the GOP legal actions as a signal that they're not confident in McCormick's Senate win. Democrats claim the Associated Press called the race prematurely and have held out hope that Casey still has a path to victory.
Pennsylvania courts have been going back and forth about whether counties should toss out mail-in ballots for missing or incorrect dates.
In late October, a panel of Commonwealth Court judges found that Philadelphia violated the state constitution by strictly enforcing the dating requirement in a recent special election. Concerned that the ruling would cause chaos, coming just days before Nov. 5, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court swiftly ordered that it would not apply to ballots cast for the presidential election.
However, several local boards of election have already voted to include undated or misdated ballots in their tally, and Republicans are concerned more might follow without judicial intervention.
In an application to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the RNC and Pennsylvania GOP asked judges to forbid counties from counting undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots in this election. McCormick’s campaign has sued Bucks County’s elections board to stop workers there from tallying 405 ballots that aren’t properly dated. The Republican has also challenged Philadelphia officials over the inclusion of 607 ballots that have dating problems.
Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery counties on Friday submitted a response to the GOP filing, arguing the Republicans gave no specific reason for leapfrogging straight to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court instead of going through the regular legal process. While the RNC argued "time is of the essence" in addressing the mail-in ballot dispute, attorneys for the three counties noted that Republicans say there are no contests still hanging in the balance.
"The only race in the General Election they mention in their Application is the U.S. Senate race," attorneys for these counties wrote. "But they contend that the 'Republican Dave McCormick currently leads his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey, by an insurmountable margin.'"
Six other counties — Bedford, Blair, Butler, Clarion, Susquehanna and Tioga — filed an answer agreeing with the RNC that incorrectly dated ballots should not be tabulated.
On Friday, Pennsylvania House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler blasted Casey for not acknowledging defeat.
“It is not too late for Sen. Casey to concede and save Pennsylvanians the cost of unnecessary litigation, recounts and questions about the legality of the 2024 election," Cutler said in a statement. "I call on him to do so immediately."
Bethany Rodgers is a USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania capital bureau investigative journalist.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: McCormick, GOP sue to stop Pa. undated ballots from counting
