(Bloomberg) — Pennsylvania officials ordered a recount in the too-close-to call Republican US Senate race between celebrity physician Mehmet Oz and former Bridgewater Associates CEO David McCormick.
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Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh Chapman said Oz currently has a lead of 902 votes over McCormick based on unofficial votes tallied so far, which by state law triggers an automatic recount. Counties can begin that process as soon as Friday and it must be completed by June 7.
“This automatic recount is intended to ensure that the count is accurate and that there is confidence in the results and outcome,” Chapman told reporters in Harrisburg. “I know Pennsylvanians and indeed people throughout the country have been following this race attentively and are eagerly awaiting the results.”
Unless waived by the candidates, a recount is automatically held in statewide races in Pennsylvania if the final unofficial margin falls within 0.5% of the total vote. The margin between Oz and McCormick meets that requirement, and Chapman said McCormick had not waived a recount.
County boards of elections must recount all ballots using a different method than the initial tabulation, by hand or a different type of equipment, according to the state elections officials.
Since the commonwealth’s recount law was implemented in 2004, there have been three automatic statewide recounts and three times they were waived, with all three recounts producing the same result as the first, Chapman said.
Oz, former President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate, and McCormick are sparring over whether to count absentee and mail-in ballots that voters submitted on time but failed to include a handwritten date on the outside envelope.
McCormick cites a federal appeals court ruling that the counties cannot reject the ballots, while Oz says that ruling doesn’t apply in this case.
Chapman said 65 of the commonwealth’s 67 counties have reported there are 860 undated Republican ballots, as well as about 10,000 provisional, absentee, military and overseas ballots still being reviewed by county elections boards to be counted.
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