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Casey watches the windmills and ballots as McCormick settles in

Online Niel November 14, 2024

PITTSBURGH— Late Wednesday evening Pennsylvania The State Department said an automatic recount has been triggered in the state’s U.S. Senate race between incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and Republican Dave McCormickwho is apparently an elected senator. That was a day after McCormick spent his first day at the U.S. Capitol in an orientation meeting with colleagues and set up his Senate office, nearly a week after Associated Press called the race in his favor.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) initially said McCormick would not be invited to the longstanding tradition of orienting incoming U.S. senators after Election Day. Schumer later relented when he faced a barrage of criticism from sitting senators of both parties for his unprecedented exclusion of McCormick.

Sen.-elect Dave McCormick (R-PA) enters the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, to attend orientation. (Courtesy photo)

Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) posted on X that “while we lose a good person and colleague in Sen. Bob Casey, I believe the Senate will gain another good man in Sen.-elect David McCormick.”

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) posted: “In 2018, my race was not called for 6 days. I jumped on a red eye to DC to do senate orientation – I learned so much and made lasting relationships that week.” She added that McCormick will be a senator for Pennsylvania and “should be invited to orientation and start learning the job.”

Casey posted nearly every daily vignette on X, dressed in a sweater and in front of a map of the state, saying he was still waiting for the final election results to come in.

McCormick won about 30,000 more votes than Casey, which is just under the half-percent margin that triggers an automatic recount in the state.

Philadelphia Board of Elections data the site was launched late Wednesday afternoon shows Casey contesting ballots from unregistered voters. It is an unprecedented and illegal action.

Seth Bluestein, a nationally respected elections administrator who currently serves as a City Commissioner, one of three members (two Democrats and one Republican) on the Philadelphia Board of Elections, said, “Our provisional ballot has been opened observers from both the Republican and Democratic Parties. Any observer has the right to challenge a decision of one of our employees, and the electoral council will judge the contested ones on Friday.”

There are approximately 50,000 potential ballots left to review.

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Democratic allies in the western and eastern halves of the state, speaking on condition of anonymity, said privately that Casey should step down because, ultimately, the voters aren’t there. Experts estimate it will cost Pennsylvania taxpayers $2 million to conduct a recount.

Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) did not comment on the race. In December 2000, a future governor of Pennsylvania and then sitting chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ed Rendell, asked Al Gore to concede his race for president after all legal efforts had been exhausted and the ballots had been counted in Florida in a close race with then-Texas Governor George W. Bush.