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    • How will the recount work in the Casey-McCormick US Senate race?
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    How will the recount work in the Casey-McCormick US Senate race?

    Online Niel Posted on

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    (This story has been updated to include the latest information on the Senate recount.)

    Pennsylvania’s nationally watched U.S. Senate race between Republican businessman Dave McCormick and three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Casey will head to a statewide recount, state election officials announced Wednesday.

    As of Wednesday afternoon, McCormick and Casey were separated by about 29,000 votes or less than 0.5% of the total, which falls within the margin that triggers a legal recount.

    Casey had the option of conceding defeat and waiving his right to a recount, which will cost about $1 million or more in taxpayer funds. But the Democrat, not conceding his loss, opted instead to let it go.

    Earlier: “Every Vote Counts”: Casey still refuses to accept Pa’s run. for the US Senate before McCormick

    “Senator Casey wants the voices of all Pennsylvanians to be heard as local county election officials continue to count the votes,” Tiernan Donohue, the three-term incumbent’s campaign manager, said in a statement Wednesday morning. “This democratic process must be allowed to play out to determine the outcome of this election.”

    In response to news of the recount, McCormick’s campaign called the Republican senator-elect’s lead “insurmountable.”

    “A recount will be a waste of taxpayer time and money, but it is Senator Casey’s prerogative,” campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Gregory said in a statement.

    She also referenced McCormick’s 2022 defeat in the Republican Senate primary, saying she “knows what it’s like to lose an election and is confident that Senator Casey will ultimately make the right decision.”

    Casey’s campaign has suggested the Associated Press called the race premature in McCormick’s favor and noted that other outlets had dropped out of declaring a result.

    They also point to several court challenges filed by McCormick and Republicans as evidence that the GOP nominee is unsure of his victory.

    At the same time, Republicans are getting louder in their calls for Casey to concede defeat. The Fair Electoral Fund, a right-wing group, started airing a commercial on television who calls Casey and the Democrats “horrible losers” and accuses them of “disrespecting our democracy.”

    “What happened to all the demands that our leaders accept the election results?” Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, posted on social media this week.

    How will a Casey-McCormick Senate recount work?

    According to the state election calendar. By law, races that are within a 0.5 percent margin of victory receive an automatic recount paid for by the state and its counties.

    However, the losing candidate may relent and request that this second count not proceed.

    If Casey did not want a recount in the race, he would have had to notify state election officials in writing by noon Wednesday, according to Pennsylvania’s election calendar. The State Department has not received word that the Casey campaign will withdraw from the recount, according to a spokesman for the office.

    The recount will have to start by November 20 and end no later than November 26.

    Another round of tabulation is unlikely to change the race standings. The 0.5 percent rule has been triggered seven times in its history, and of the four statewide recounts that have gone ahead, none have changed the result, according to the state department.

    McCormick allowed a statewide recount in 2022 after losing the state Senate primary to Mehmet Oz by only about 1,000 votes. That recognition cost a little more than $1 million, according to the State Department.

    Oz was defeated by US Senator John Fetterman in the general election.

    McCormick walks on while Casey searches

    McCormick tried to put the election in the rearview mirror this week and headed to Washington, DC, for his freshman Senate orientation.

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer initially refused to invite McCormick heading to the Senate, believing the outcome of the race was still unclear. Under pressure from Republicans, he eventually extended the invitation to Pennsylvania’s senator-elect.

    McCormick posted photos of his wife in the nation’s capital, including one of them standing next to the nameplate of his new Senate office.

    Back in Pennsylvania, however, the fight continued in the courts.

    Last week, the Republican’s campaign filed several lawsuits challenging the provisional vote count in Philadelphia. A judge dismissed one of them, and McCormick’s campaign withdrew the other.

    The Republican National Committee this week appealed a Commonwealth Court ruling that found Philadelphia officials violated the constitution by rejecting mail-in ballots for missing or incorrect data.

    RNC lawyers are asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reverse that decision and find that a strictly enforced meeting requirement is not too burdensome for mail-in voters. McCormick’s 2022 campaign made the opposite argument and sued for the counting of these ballots.

    And Casey’s team tried to portray the series of legal filings — one of which said the outcome of the election could be at stake — as an admission that the results are inconclusive.

    “When there’s a difference between the GOP’s talking points and the legal filings, trust the legal filings,” a Democratic consultant said in a social media post that was re-shared by a Casey campaign spokeswoman.

    Bethany Rodgers is an investigative journalist for the USA TODAY Network’s Pennsylvania Capital Bureau.

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