Wisconsin isn’t the only swing state with a contested Senate race. In a match that’s even tighter than Hovde’s, the outcome of the Pennsylvania Senate race for Sen. Bob Casey’s seat is also in doubt, despite the AP calling it for Republican candidate Dave McCormick.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of State ordered a recount to be conducted in the race, since the margin is less than 0.5%, which triggers an automatic recount under Pennsylvania law — unless the trailing candidate waives it. The most recent vote totals show Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey has 48.5% of the vote and his Republican challenger David McCormick has 48.9%.
According to the department, the results of the recount will be released on Nov. 27, leaving one of the most closely-watched races unresolved until the end of the month. Read more about the recount here.
President-elect Donald Trump won both Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and it appeared that McCormick won, too. But days after the election, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt (R) said there were at least 100,000 ballots “remaining to be adjudicated, including provisional, military, overseas, and Election Day votes.” On Tuesday, incumbent Sen. Casey said in a statement county election officials “will finish counting those votes, just like they do in every election.”
As the recount gets underway, McCormick, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania on Wednesday sued the Bucks County Board of Elections, challenging the board’s decision to count 405 mail-in ballots submitted with undated or wrongly dated outer envelopes in the general election. In a second legal action, the RNC is asking the state’s highest court to block all 67 Pennsylvania county boards of elections from counting mail-in ballots with undated or wrongly dated envelopes. Read more about that lawsuit and how it can impact the current Senate race.
