The unofficial results of the U.S. Senate race between Bob Casey and Dave McCormick are within 0.5%. That triggers an automatic recount, which Pennsylvania counties have until Wednesday to begin.
Counties must use a different method or equipment to recount the votes. Centre County Administrator John Franek, Jr. said his county will rent different electronic ballot counters for the recount, but he said he doesn’t expect much to change.
“All the staff that have worked on this are top notch, and we have full confidence in those folks,” he said.
Franek said representatives of each candidate and both parties will be present for the duration of the recount.
In Cambria County, Director of Community Development Ron Robertson said his county will also use electronic ballot counters for the recount.
The county experienced issues with its ballot counting machines on Election Day. This caused officials to duplicate each ballot so that machines could read them rather than continue a slow hand count.
“All the ballots have been duplicated. The scanner can read the ballots, and we expect the recount to be done in an efficient manner,” Robertson said.
The AP called the race for McCormick soon after the election, but the Casey campaign has refused to concede as provisional ballots continue to be counted.
Many of these provisional or mail-in ballots with date issues are entangled in lawsuits, but they have narrowed the margin to within 20,000 votes.
Recounts rarely change the results of elections, however.
McCormick also faced a recount in 2022 when he lost his Senate primary election to Mehmet Oz by a narrow margin.
Counties have until Nov. 27 to report their results to the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
