Unofficial U.S. Senate race results trigger recount

Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced today that unofficial results in the Nov. 5 general election race for U.S. Senate have triggered a legally required statewide recount.

According to the state’s announcement, Senator Bob Casey and challenger Dave McCormick have vote totals “within the one-half of 1 percent margin that triggers a mandatory recount under state law.”

As of today, the unofficial returns for the U.S. Senate race submitted by all 67 counties show the following results for those two candidates:

• Robert P. Casey Jr. – 3,350,972 (48.50%)

• David H. McCormick – 3,380,310 (48.93%)

The recount rules state that once counties finish counting their ballots, they must begin the recount no later than Wednesday, Nov. 20 and finish by noon on Nov. 26. The recount results will then be reported to the Secretary by noon on Nov. 27.

This is the eighth time the automatic recount provision has been triggered since the passage of Act 97 of 2004. The state estimates that the recount cost will exceed $1 million of taxpayer funds.

In its announcement, the state also noted that there are 60,366 uncounted provisional ballots and 20,155 uncounted mail-in and absentee ballots state-wide, but the county boards of elections have not yet made a final resolution regarding their validity or eligibility to be counted.