Republican Dave McCormick may have declared victory in his US Senate race over incumbent Democrat Bob Casey, but in court, the race is still an ongoing concern.

McCormick filed a pair of lawsuits Thursday in Philadelphia challenging between 15,000 and 20,000 provisional ballots that city election officials were supposed to review this morning.

In a contest where McCormick leads Casey by about 30,000 votes, if those Philadelphia ballots — and similarly cast provisional votes from voters in other counties — are counted it has the potential to “influence … election result,” McCormick’s attorney, George Bochetto. he wrote.

The McCormick campaign did not immediately respond to questions about the lawsuits, including why the filings suggested the ballots could affect the outcome of the election when McCormick declared victory and said Casey could not win.

Tens of thousands of voters cast provisional ballots in each election for a variety of reasons, from confusion over whether they were registered to vote to situations where someone may have submitted a defective mail-in ballot that was rejected, but later presented himself to vote in the polls.

County election workers typically delay reviewing such ballots until they can verify the voter’s eligibility and determine whether their ballots should count.

Philadelphia city commissioners began that process Friday morning, reviewing the provisional ballots — and determining which of the 15,000 to 20,000 should be considered and which should be rejected. The city and many of the surrounding suburban counties, all Democratic strongholds, are seen as Casey’s best opportunity to rebound against McCormick in the provisional vote count.

McCormick is seeking a court order that would allow Republicans to challenge some of those provisional ballots in broad categories — such as those missing a voter’s signature or cases where a ballot lacks the required secret envelope — instead of fight one by one in front. of the council.

In addition, McCormick’s campaign asked a judge to order the board to seize an unspecified number of provisional ballots that were cast at the polls by voters who previously submitted mail-in ballots that were rejected for procedural flaws, such as such as missing data or secret envelopes.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last month that those provisional ballots should be counted, rejecting a Republican push to exclude them on the grounds that those voters had already cast a ballot — even a rejected one — by mail.

The GOP appealed that order to the US Supreme Court, which declined to take the case for now. However, three of the court’s conservative justices — Samuel A. Alito Jr., Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — signaled a potential willingness to reconsider the issue after the election, calling it “a matter of considerable importance.”

In his filing Friday, McCormick said he plans to challenge provisional ballots that fall into that bucket and possibly take that case back to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Read the petition: