HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) 鈥� Republicans went to court in Pennsylvania on Thursday amid vote counting in the U.S. Senate election between Democratic and Republican , as the campaigns prepare for a recount and press counties for favorable ballot-counting decisions.
The lawsuits ask courts not to allow counties to count mail-in ballots where the voter didn鈥檛 write a date on the return envelope 鈥� as required by law 鈥� or wrote an incorrect date. The GOP suits could be among many before the last vote in the Senate race is counted, especially with the contest headed toward a .
The Associated Press the race last week, concluding that not enough ballots remained to be counted in areas Casey was winning for him to take the lead.
As of Thursday, McCormick led by about 24,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million ballots counted 鈥� inside the 0.5% margin threshold to trigger an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania law.
The national and state Republican parties asked the state Supreme Court to bar counties from counting the ballots, saying those decisions violate both the court's recent orders and its precedent in upholding the requirement in state law.
In a statement, the Pennsylvania Republican Party chair, Lawrence Tabas, said, 鈥淲hat's taking place in these counties is absolute lawlessness.鈥�
Democratic-majority election boards in Montgomery County, Philadelphia, Bucks County and Centre County voted to count the ballots.
Democrats cast more mail-in ballots than Republicans, and Democrats in the past have supported counting ballots that trip over what they view as meaningless clerical requirements in state law.
鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about constitutional rights and I cannot take an action to throw out someone's ballot that is validly cast, otherwise, over an issue that we know ... is immaterial,鈥� Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, a Democrat, said during a Thursday meeting in voting to count 501 such ballots.
McCormick's campaign sued Bucks County separately to contest the county election board's decision to count 405 such ballots. Lawsuits were forthcoming against Center County and Philadelphia on Thursday evening, Republican lawyers said.
It is the of the that McCormick took in court in 2022 in his failed eleventh-hour bid to close the gap in votes with celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania鈥檚 Republican for U.S. Senate.
In that case, McCormick's lawyer told a state judge that the object of Pennsylvania鈥檚 election law is to let people vote, 鈥渘ot to play games of 鈥榞otcha鈥� with them.鈥�
Statewide, the number of mail-in ballots with wrong or missing dates on the return envelope could be in the thousands, although most counties haven鈥檛 moved to count them.
Lower courts have repeatedly it unconstitutional or illegal to throw out such ballots. But higher courts 鈥� including the state Supreme Court on Nov. 1 鈥� have blocked those decisions from taking effect.
Counties, meanwhile, continued Thursday processing tens of thousands of provisional ballots and hearing challenges to some of them by lawyers for Casey, McCormick and the state parties. A provisional ballot is typically cast at a polling place on Election Day and is separated from regular ballots in cases when elections workers need more time to determine a voter鈥檚 eligibility to vote.
On Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro鈥檚 top election official, Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican, announced that preliminary results had triggered a legally required and said counties had reported just over 80,000 uncounted provisional, mail-in and absentee ballots.
Counties must finish the recount by noon on Nov. 26. It largely involves running paper ballots through high-speed scanners, a process that former election officials by more than a few hundred votes.
Meanwhile, both Casey and McCormick were in Washington this week. Casey was attending official Senate sessions and casting floor votes while McCormick attended Senate orientation and caucus meetings to pick a after Republicans won in last week鈥檚 election that saw win the White House.
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Marc Levy, The Associated Press
