“It’s time to concede and move on.”
That was the message on Thursday from former Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Mark Singel to fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. as yet another media organization announced the three-term senator had lost his re-election bid.
“It’s time to get on with this. He’s had a good, distinguished career,” Singel said on CBS 21 in Pittsburgh.
Singel’s admonition is notable, coming from a Democrat who served with Gov. Bob Casey Sr. from 1987 to 1995.
The campaign for U.S. Sen.-elect Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) delivered a similar message.
“There is no path for Bob Casey to be leading heading into the recount,” said Mark Harris, McCormick’s lead strategist during a press call earlier in the day.
Soon after, DecisionDeskHQ projected McCormick the winner.
Unofficial returns give McCormick a more than 24,000 vote lead over Casey. The AP declared him the winner last week. McCormick attended U.S. Senate orientation in Washington, D.C. this week.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt announced a mandatory recount on Wednesday, because McCormick’s margin of victory fell to less than half of a percentage point. It will cost taxpayers $1 million for the recount. Results should be released on Nov. 27.
Casey could have waived his right to a recount.
While Schmidt estimated 80,000 votes remained to be counted, the McCormick campaign suggested it was far fewer.
Harris said some of the ballots were reviewed following Schmidt’s announcement while others were declared invalid by counties. He put the number of remaining ballots at up to 30,000, mostly in Allegheny and Chester Counties. “There is no big batch of Philly ballots,” he said.
Pennsylvania Republicans and Democrats are fighting it out in court over 1,200 or so undated ballots, mostly in the Delaware Valley. McCormick’s campaign told the Chester County Board of Elections to strike provisional ballots that did not follow the law. It also sued Bucks County over the Board of Elections’ decision to accept ballots with date errors.
Harris claimed several thousand ballots are being challenged and expressed confidence they would not change the results of the election.
The Casey campaign and national Democrats suggested McCormick wanted to disenfranchise voters over the ballot challenges. Casey spokesperson Maddy McDaniel accused McCormick of hypocrisy, as his campaign argued for their inclusion in McCormick’s GOP Senate primary loss in 2022. The campaign later said Casey’s priority was to “[make] sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard as our democratic process unfolds.”
But Harris pointed to a Nov. 1 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that said undated ballots would not be counted in this election.
“We are simply asking for them to abide by the clear ruling of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on this issue,” he said.
The GOP has asked the state Supreme Court to reaffirm its ruling.
Another legal fight involves several thousand provisional ballots cast by unregistered voters.
State law requires voters to register by Oct. 21 so their ballots can count in the November election.
But McCormick campaign counsel James Fitzpatrick accused the Casey camp of wanting unregistered voter ballots in Philadelphia, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties to be counted. He said Democrats hypocritically have not made requests to count unregistered voter ballots in Cambria and Washington Counties.
They cited letters sent by the Casey campaign to the Boards of Elections in Lancaster and Lackawanna Counties. In both letters, a Casey representative said the Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors (SURE) system does not always show information for registered voters with multiple middle or last names.
“Because the Board has not provided [the Casey campaign] with information to determine whether these rejected provisional ballots would be permissible … [we] must challenge any determination to reject these ballots wholesale,” said the Casey campaign letters.
The Secretary of State’s Office did not return DVJournal’s request for comment on Casey’s allegations or whether guidance had been issued to counties.
Fitzpatrick called those arguments frivolous and wanted it left up to the SURE system and local boards of elections. “Everyone knows that [they’re] the arbiter of who is registered and who is not registered,” said Fitzpatrick.
McCormick’s campaign remained confident they would win the election regardless of how the provisional ballot count turned out. “There’s still no chance. … No matter how they slice it, more people voted for Dave McCormick than Bob Casey… That’s the inescapable truth,” said Sizemore.
