Shortly after Republican Sen.-elect David McCormick's team held a call with reporters to demonstrate that Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. has no mathematical path to victory, another Pennsylvania The senator defended the automatic federal recount.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) told Fox News Digital that his state requires a recount to begin if there is a difference within 0.5 percentage points, so “that's the law.”
Asked whether Casey should have conceded after the race was declared in McCormick's favor, Fetterman said he did not believe “counting every vote” could be controversial. He said it was difficult.
“Then, [recount] Laws are caused by conditions, they obey laws, that's what happened. Otherwise, advocate hard right [view]. ”
Fetterman said Republicans in Wisconsin are making the opposite case.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) wears a close-up of Sen. Bob Casey Jr.'s (D-PA) face at the Capitol on September 12, 2023. (Reuters)
Wisconsin Republican candidate Eric Hovde had initially floated the issue of seeking a recount against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin. CBS Newsbut later said on a radio show that he would make concessions.
“What about that special Kali Lake? Do you think she's everything, you know…” Fetterman asked. “Let's talk about where we are in Pennsylvania. Count every vote. And now there's a recount going on, because that's the law. It's not an opinion, it's a fact. is.”
Asked if Mr. Hovde and Mr. Lake should make concessions, Mr. Fetterman quipped, “I promise you, Kali Lake doesn't care what I think, but she has to find a new job.”
Lawyers for the McCormick campaign said in a call with reporters earlier this week that state officials say the maximum number of remaining ballots is about 80,000, but privately they believe the number is closer to 30,000. He said he was making an estimate.
Applying an average vote validity of 77% in 66 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, excluding Philadelphia, there is no path for Mr. Casey, they said.
As of Wednesday, Philadelphia County had zero outstanding ballots, and the city's blue-collar counties and Allegheny County, to the west, where Pittsburgh is located, had nearly finished counting.
A Pennsylvania welcome sign welcomes drivers on US-222 entering Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania from Maryland in 2022. (Charlie Crates)
“There's no mathematical or statistical reason that they have a path to victory here,” a campaign official said on a conference call.
The campaign, along with the larger Republican establishment, is now vocally opposing the actions of several county election boards that have announced their intention to count undated mail-in ballots or have already done so.
Such a move would ignore a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that the process should never have taken place.
Representatives for McCormick cited Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery and Center counties among the jurisdictions that had tweets about counting ballots. All of these counties are blue and suburban, except for the latter, which leans Democratic thanks to Penn State.
One representative also said there appeared to be no interest in counting undated ballots in Washington and Cambria counties, which are heavily Republican.
On Thursday, PAGOP and the RNC sued election boards in all 67 counties to stop counting undated ballots, and filed a separate intervention with the Supreme Court, where Democrats hold a 5-2 majority.
mccormick (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty)
“Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick currently holds a commanding lead of nearly 30,000 votes over Democratic challenger Bob Casey, but he has a strong lead in Philadelphia, Bucks, Center and other county races. Numerous county elections including Board of Supervisors “Administrator's use of impromptu ballots to count undated or improperly dated mail is a brazen defiance of ballots, Pennsylvania law, and two state Supreme Court orders.” Lawrence Tabas said in a statement.
With 99% of precincts reporting Thursday, Mr. McCormick leads Mr. Casey by 3.384 million votes to 3.367 million votes, a difference of about 0.4%.
