BETHLEHEM, Pa. — After election staff workers spent days re-tabulating millions of mail-in ballots, the Pennsylvania Department of State called off the automatic recount in the U.S. Senate race Friday morning.
It came hours after incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey's concession Thursday night.
Unofficial results show Republican challenger David McCormick defeated Casey by a little more than 16,000 votes out of a total 6.9 million cast. The narrow margins automatically triggered a recount under state law.
While the Associated Press called the race for McCormick two days after polls closed, Casey had insisted he had a path to victory given how close the race was and the large number of provisional ballots.
Though the race did tighten as election workers tallied those provisional ballots, Casey acknowledged Thursday night what political observers have been saying for weeks — that he had not won a fourth term.
"I am grateful to the thousands of people who worked to make sure that every eligible vote cast would be counted, including election officials in all 67 counties," Casey said.
During my time in office, I have been guided by an inscription on the Finance Building in Harrisburg: “All public service is a trust, given in faith and accepted in honor.”
— Bob Casey Jr. (@Bob_Casey) November 21, 2024
Thank you for your trust in me for all these years, Pennsylvania. It has been the honor of my lifetime. pic.twitter.com/RSXEFwdge8
With Casey's concession, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt notified counties Thursday night to end the recount process, saying that continuing it would not be in the best interest of taxpayers.
“Thank you to all of Pennsylvania’s elections officials for their hard work throughout this election cycle, including counting millions of ballots and continuing to diligently conduct two audits to ensure every eligible vote cast in the Nov. 5 election is accurately counted," Schmidt said in a prepared statement.
"Thank you to all of Pennsylvania’s elections officials for their hard work throughout this election cycle ..."Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt
Both campaigns filed lawsuits in the Lehigh Valley over which provisional ballots they elected to count. It's not clear if the cases will still proceed; officials in each county said Friday morning the campaigns had not yet withdrawn them.
In Northampton County, McCormick sued after the Election Commission opted to count provisional ballots where voters signed it a single time instead of twice as state law requires. In Lehigh County Casey, Casey sued when the Board of Elections decided not to count those same types of ballots, arguing the error likely came from a failure of election workers to properly instruct voters.
Provisional ballots are paper ballots cast at a polling place where there's some question if someone is eligible to vote. For example, a voter may not appear in a poll book or they may be scheduled to vote by mail-in ballot. The provisional ballots are set aside and reviewed at a later date to determine if they should be counted or deemed ineligible.
All counties are required to certify their elections by Monday. Both Lehigh and Northampton counties have already started their notification process.
