Recount triggered in Pennsylvania Senate race as McCormick heads to D.C., Casey declines to concede

Sen. Bob Casey is not giving up on retaining his U.S. Senate seat. The three-term Democrat is currently locked in a tight race with Dave McCormick, trailing the Republican by just over 29,000 votes as of 4 p.m. Wednesday. CBS News has not issued a projection in the race.

Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced Wednesday afternoon that unofficial results in the race have triggered a statewide recount. 

That’s because vote totals for McCormick and Casey are within a 0.5% margin, which triggers a statewide recount under state law.

According to the Department of State, Casey received 48.5% of the vote with 3,350,972 votes and McCormick had 48.93% with 3,380,310. 

Counties must begin the recount by Nov. 20, the announcement says. The recount will cost about $1 million in taxpayer funds, the Department of State says.

In a statement Wednesday, McCormick’s spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory said, “Senator-Elect McCormick’s lead is insurmountable, which the AP made clear in calling the race. A recount will be a waste of time and taxpayer money, but it is Senator Casey’s prerogative. Senator-Elect McCormick knows what it’s like to lose an election and is sure Senator Casey will eventually reach the right conclusion.”

According to an earlier statement from the Pennsylvania Department of State, Casey’s campaign did not waive an automatic recount by noon Wednesday.

Casey has not made a public appearance since his election night watch party in Scranton, but he posted a video on his social media accounts Tuesday.

“The American democratic process was born in Pennsylvania, and that process will play out,” he said in the video on X.

Meanwhile, McCormick is moving forward. The businessman declared victory during a speech in Pittsburgh Friday, and he has spent this week in Washington going through the Senate orientation process.

“The people have spoken. There’s a clear, clear victory,” McCormick said last week.

CBS News Philadelphia reached out to both campaigns Wednesday, but neither made the candidates available to speak.

Casey’s campaign has said it’s been waiting for outstanding votes from around the state, from mail-in ballots to overseas and military votes and provisional ballots. In Philadelphia, the state’s largest county and one where Casey has garnered more than 78% of the vote, commissioners say the number of votes left out there is running thin.

“We had about 20,000 provisional ballots to start with. We’ve already counted 11,000 of those,” city commissioner Seth Bluestein said Wednesday.

Bluestein told CBS News Philadelphia the election board wrapped up voting on outstanding mail-in votes Wednesday. He says a few thousand could not be counted for various reasons, mostly a lack of a signature or secrecy envelope.

As for the remaining provisional ballots, Bluestein said the board will take those up on Friday. But he warned, “most of those will probably end up not getting counted.”

The Department of Stats says there are about 60,366 uncounted provisional ballots and 20,155 uncounted mail-in and absentee ballots. That includes ballots for which officials still need to determine eligibility or validity.