Republican US Senate candidate in Pennsylvania sues over provisional ballots (updated)
08/11/2024 23:21
(Updates with comment from the Casey campaign in paragraphs four
and five)
*
McCormick leads Casey by about 34,600 votes with 98%
counted
*
Automatic recount if race is decided by half a percentage
point
or less
*
McCormick seeks to sequester provisional ballots pending
Supreme
Court ruling
By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Delaware, Nov 8 (Reuters) -
U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick of Pennsylvania sought
a court order that would allow the Republican to challenge
provisional ballots en masse in Philadelphia in a race he
appears to have won, according to court papers.
The counting of the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 provisional
ballots cast in Philadelphia, a Democratic Party stronghold, was
scheduled to begin on Friday, according to McCormick's Thursday
filing in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia.
McCormick leads incumbent Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat, by
about 34,600 votes with 98% of the expected total statewide vote
counted, according to Edison Research. The Associated Press on
Thursday projected McCormick had won the seat, which would add
to Republicans' majority in the Senate beginning next year.
Casey's campaign said on Friday that the race was too close
to be called.
An automatic recount will be conducted if the race is
decided by half a percentage point or less, which is about the
margin of McCormick's lead before the provisional ballots were
counted.
Provisional ballots are cast when there are questions about a
voter's eligibility, which officials investigate after the
election.
McCormick said he should be allowed to make mass challenges
to provisional ballots with similar problems because the sheer
volume of ballots will overwhelm the ability of Republican
officials to do so individually.
"Plaintiffs fear that potentially non-compliant ballots may
be improperly counted, compromising the fairness and integrity
of the election," said McCormick's court filing.
McCormick also asked the court to sequester provisional
ballots cast by voters who had their mail-in or absentee ballots
rejected for a defect such as a missing inner secrecy envelope,
pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said those provisional
ballots must be counted, but the Republican Party has appealed
the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not addressed the
merits of the case.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Scott
Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)
((mailto:thomas.hals@thomsonreuters.com; +1 610 544 2712;
Reuters Messaging:
rm://thomas.hals.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net/))