Posted on 05/18/2022 7:31:10 PM PDT by lightman
The lay of the land in Pennsylvania’s excruciating Republican U.S. Senate primary changed little Wednesday as elections officials churned through the biggest chunk of uncounted ballots.
Dr. Mehmet Oz’s lead over former Wall Street executive David McCormick had shrunk some, to 1,242 votes as of 9 p.m. That was cut in half from Oz’s 2,594 vote lead as of 11 a.m.
But shrinking faster was the stack of on-time but uncounted mail-in ballots. Based on the Department of State’s real-time tallies, the total mail-in vote count had grown by about 20,500 through the day Wednesday. That means, at most, there should be about 12,000 more Republican mail-ins to be processed. And that meant that McCormick’s path to victory was narrowing.
Through the day, Oz’s vote share in the full seven-candidate field had dropped to 31.2 percent. McCormick was stuck at 31.1 percent.
Oz and his campaign were still reluctant to declare victory Wednesday, and did not respond to requests for comment from PennLive.
But his most influential backer, former President Donald J. Trump, who endorsed Oz in April and held a campaign rally for him earlier this month, couldn’t show the same restraint.
According to The Washington Post, Trump sought to declare on his social media site, Truth Social, that Oz, a TV personality and heart surgeon, won the race. He derided the mail-in ballots, The Post said, posting: “Here we go again! In Pennsylvania they are unable to count the Mail-in Ballots. It is a BIG MESS. Our Country should go to paper ballots, with same day voting.”
He later urged Oz to “declare victory.”
“It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find,’” Trump said, even though neither campaign has voiced any concerns with the primary count.
McCormick’s team, meanwhile, also declined to make public statements.
But privately, campaign sources said they were sticking with cautious optimism that the gap can be closed and are focused on making sure every legitimate ballot is counted, especially given Allegheny County’s announcement Wednesday that there are potentially more than 6,000 outstanding votes there that, because of mistakes by precinct officials, are in safekeeping until the county’s return board convenes for official canvassing on Friday.
Allegheny is where McCormick, a recently retired CEO of Bridgewater Associates, relocated to when he moved back to Pennsylvania this year, and it’s one of the counties where he ran best in this race. But it’s unclear how many of those uncounted votes were cast by Republicans, so the ultimate impact of that delayed count is unknowable.
Election judges statewide must also make rulings on provisional ballots, and there will likely also be some straggling military member ballots, which can be received for up to a week after the election.
Any way you slice it, the Republican Senate race appears to be headed for an automatic recount. State law requires that in cases where the margin of victory is less than a half-percent of the total turnout, unless the candidate within that margin waves it off.
The winner of the GOP race will advance into what is expected to be a hotly-contested and nationally-watched general election campaign against Pennsylvania’s Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who easily won the Democratic Party nomination.
“Worst two picks in history. “
Definitely! Since ancient times and the beginning of recorded history I can’t think of two picks worse than what the voters had to deal with in PA. Simply unfathomable.
The lead is 1,217 now (11:21 PM).
I thought they were to be counted first.
Maybe it's not the best, most rock ribbed America First panel of candidates that you'd want, but "worst two picks in history" is a little hyperbolic. Worse than Pat Toomey? maybe, though I think it's hard to make the case that McCormick would be worse than Toomey right now. Worse than Rick Santorum? questionable, though every time Santorum had a chance to show some spine he crumpled like a cheap suit. Worse than Arlen Spector? Even Oz doesn't deserve that slur, at least not without some sort of record in office. Worse than Casey, Wofford, or Fetterman? No.
So McCormick could say “no recount”...Oz wins?? Yeh...sure he will.
No ballots (of any kind) may be counted until after the polls close on election day.
Lead is 1,294 now (10:42 AM).
Lead is now 1369 @1410 hrs May 19
Lead contracted to 1245 at 1528 hrs
Lead is 1,122 at 6:54 PM.
1,127 at 9:50 AM.
1,078 at 12:33AM - Saturday 21st
What we have now is essentially a related rates differential equation: Rate of McCormick ballot percentage is not keeping pace with the number of ballots remaining.
He should concede and spare the taxpayers the expense of a recount.
“If you or your children were in an emergency, and needed a doctor to save your life, and Oz was the only one nearby, would you let him save your life?”
Ridiculous question. What does that have to do with politics? That’s like asking if nobody else were available would you want Donald Trump to preach in your church and being responsible for leading souls to Christ.
.
“So McCormick could say ‘no recount’.”
Per Bannon on War Room yesterday, McCormick already had 100 lawyers going into precincts to get the ball rolling for suits. He’ll hold on as long as possible.
I hate both, but think that having a Muslim infiltrate America’s legislature would be worse than a Bushbot.
This mail in stuff has to stop. The election was on Tuesday.
If PA was reliably blue, Deep State wouldn’t have to steal elections there.
That may be all he is good for. LOL
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