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With a narrow margin separating the top contestants in the Pennsylvania Senate Republican primary, the race is almost certainly headed to a countdown, and also to the courts, after candidate David McCormick’s last push to secure – It is known that ballots by mail without handwritten dates are not discarded.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, McCormick alleged that Pennsylvania County Electoral Boards are “keeping voters in limbo” because of their refusal to count these ballots in absentia and by mail, which they considered a violation. of “voting protections under the Federal Civil Rights Act and the Pennsylvania Constitution.”
McCormick is stuck in a race too close, behind the famous doctor Mehmet Oz by a margin of less than 0.1 percent, or about 987 votes, according to the follow-up to The Washington Post’s primary election. Under state law, a difference of 0.5 percent or less would trigger an automatic count.
“These ballots were unquestionably filed on time – they were marked with the date of receipt – and no fraud or irregularity has been alleged,” the lawsuit states.
The Pennsylvania GOP Senate race is likely to lead to a countdown
Pennsylvania law requires that absent or mailed voters return their ballots before 8:00 pm on election day in a sealed envelope that is placed in a second envelope that they must ” fill in, date and sign “. The outer envelope then bears a postmark from the post office and a time stamp indicating when the counties received it.
The constitutionality of the date provision was questioned last year during a county election. A three-judge court ruled on Friday that the requirement was “immaterial” and therefore if used to reject a vote, in violation of the Civil Rights Act. He also ordered county election officials to count hundreds of ballots without handwritten dates as long as they are received on time and “no fraud or irregularity has been alleged.”
The verdict became the basis for McCormick’s complaint.
“Every vote in the Republican primary must be counted, including the votes of the active-duty Pennsylvania military who risk their lives to defend our constitutional right to vote,” said Jess Szymanski, a spokeswoman for the campaign. a statement to The Washington Post.
It’s unclear how many ballots don’t have handwritten dates in the seven-candidate race to replace Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R), who is resigning this year. Counties are still counting votes, such as military and overseas ballots, which could continue to arrive this week and are valid as long as they have the postmark before the May 17 election day deadline.
McCormick, a former chief of staff and a veteran of the military, fought back and forth against Oz, who has the backing of former President Donald Trump.
But McCormick it could be closer to Oz if the handwritten ballot papers are counted. While Oz has fared better with in-person voting, ballots are slightly in favor of McCormick, who captured 32 percent of the state’s postal votes compared to Oz’s 23 percent, according to the Department of Homeland Security. ‘State of Pennsylvania.
Oz’s campaign, meanwhile, flatly rejected McCormick’s offer to count what Oz considered “legally rejected ballots” in a statement that underscored Republicans’ increasingly negative attitudes toward postal voting.
“Unfortunately, McCormick’s legal team is following the Democrats’ playbook, a tactic that could have long-term detrimental consequences for Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth election,” Oz campaign chief Casey wrote Saturday. Cons. “It’s a stark contrast to Dr. Mehmet Oz’s efforts to secure the democratic process in the United States.”
As Trump falsely attacks another election, Pennsylvania officials are preparing for November
The approval of the postal vote has become deeply partisan, especially after Trump’s repeated false attacks on the method of voting. According to a 2021 Pew Research Center study, 38 percent of Republicans said they were in favor of allowing all voters to vote early or by no-vote; 84 percent of Democrats said the same.
In a statement posted on Twitter, the Pennsylvania Republican Party said it would “absolutely oppose” counting ballot papers by handwritten dates in the disputed race, a message Trump echoed when he urged Oz to proclaim -has a winner.
It would make it “much harder for them to cheat on ballots they just found,” Trump wrote on Social Truth in a post that mimicked his 2020 attempts to stop the ballot count by mail in Pennsylvania.