Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of state made a long-anticipated announcement Wednesday: There will be a recount in the Republican Senate primary.
In Pennsylvania, an automatic recount is triggered if the margin is within .5 percent. Candidates Mehmet Oz and David McCormick are well within that, separated by fewer than 1,000 votes in recent days. The Associated Press reported that 1,342,580 ballots had been cast in the race.
Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman (D) said her office would require counties to begin their recounts by June 1, and to complete them by noon on June 7. Counties have to hand in their tallies to her office by noon on June 8, after which the acting secretary will publish a report.
McCormick filed a lawsuit with a lower court this week, asking for an emergency injunction mandating that undated mail-in ballots be counted. He asked the state Supreme Court to intervene soon after. McCormick has so far done better with mail-in votes than Oz.
The Republican National Committee and state GOP have indicated that they will intervene to oppose McCormick’s lawsuit.
Chapman said her office would require all counties to segregate and tabulate “undated and incorrectly dated” ballots.
“Our position is that undated and incorrectly dated ballots should count,” she said. “Our guidance will allow counties to arrive at an accurate count no matter what the courts decide.”
Former President Donald Trump has infused the waiting period with his usual dose of specious fraud allegations.
“Dr. Oz should just declare victory,” he wrote on social media site Truth Social. “It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find.’”
Both Oz and McCormick appeared on Fox News last week to assure viewers of their impending victories.
“This election is ours,” Oz told host Sean Hannity. “We have done well.”
“What happened was really a groundswell of support for me, and I’m really pleased with where things stand,” McCormick told host Laura Ingraham shortly after. He added: “There are tens of thousands of absentee ballots that will be counted and when they’re counted, I’ll ultimately take the lead.”
Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman (D) easily won the Democratic primary last week, and will take on whichever Republican prevails in November.
