GOP Senator-elect ends effort to halt counting of outstanding votes

Republican U.S. Senator-elect Dave McCormick’s lawyers withdrew a request on Friday for a Philadelphia judge to intervene to prevent election officials from counting provisional ballots without adequate Republican observation, according to court records.

McCormick’s campaign filed the lawsuit Thursday after the Associated Press declared him the winner of the Senate race by a narrow margin over incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. Casey refused to concede, with his campaign saying that up to 100,000 provisional and overseas absentee ballots remained to be counted.

“The number of provisional ballots expected from areas that favor Senator Casey, like Philadelphia and its suburbs, is further proof that this race is too close to be called,” Casey campaign spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said. “As the McCormick campaign admitted in their own lawsuit this morning, the counting of these ballots could have an ‘impact on the outcome of the election.’ With more than 100,000 ballots still left to count, we will continue to make sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard.”

About 20,000 provisional ballots were in Philadelphia, the McCormick campaign said, arguing that the campaign should be permitted to make “global challenges” to large groups of provisional ballots with similar discrepancies.

McCormick’s lawyers noted that because Republicans had no candidate in a majority of races in the city, the GOP is entitled to 27 fewer observers of the counting process.

They also asked the court to order provisional ballots to be set aside if the voters who cast them had requested mail-in ballots. The filing says such provisional ballots should not be counted until the U.S. Supreme Court rules in an appeal of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling. In that case, the state’s highest court ruled that voters who learn their mail-in ballots have been rejected must be permitted to vote by provisional ballots.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of voters, allowing the state Supreme Court decision that the provisional ballots to stand, the Republican Party has filed an application to block enforcement of the decision arguing that the ruling violates the U.S. Constitution.

McCormick held a press conference in Pittsburgh on Friday where he thanked supporters, and expressed sympathy for Casey, noting he had experience losing a close election — McCormick lost the 2022 GOP U.S. Senate primary to Mehmet Oz by less than 1,000 votes.

“We obviously had an incredibly hard fought race but there’s no doubt that this is a family and Senator Casey is a man who has served this great commonwealth with honor,” McCormick said. “We knew on election night we had won, because the math was clear and there’s no way for Senator Casey to win, and the AP certainly recognized that yesterday by calling the race. But Senator Casey is going to have to work through this, and so I wish him the best and his family the best and thank them for their service.”

If the margin of votes between Casey and McCormick is at or below .5% it would trigger a recount under Pennsylvania law.

Details of a hearing held in Philadelphia on Friday were not immediately available online.