With less than a 1,000-vote lead in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary election, Donald Trump encouraged his candidate, Mehmet Oz, to declare victory.
His opponent was making numerous moves in an attempt to have invalid ballots included.
It was even to the point that the GOP tried to step in with a suit to ensure only valid ballots would be counted.
Now, the election is officially going to a recount, infuriating Trump and his supporters that had backed Dr. Oz.
Here We Go
Pennsylvania law requires a mandatory recount in any election where there is a difference of 0.5 percent or less.
That difference is a mere 0.1 percent in the PA GOP Senate election, so the recount has been triggered.
Prior to that, however, Oz’s opponent, Dave McCormick, was trying to get invalidated ballots counted, a horrific move considering all the problems we had to fight through in the 2020 election.
With a 902-vote lead, Donald Trump had told Oz to ring the bell and declare victory, but he has held off until the recount results have been finalized.
The count can begin today, but it cannot be started any later than June 1, and it must be concluded by June 7.
The ballots in question that McCormick wants to have included have no date on them but were received before the election.
Typically, these ballots would be considered invalid, but a precedent was set in a previous election that permitted these ballots to be counted.
McCormick believes he has a significant edge in those ballots, and with 860 votes in question, he believes he could narrow that gap.
Pennsylvania is also in the process of counting almost 10,000 absentee ballots from military members and other voters not present during the election.
So, it looks like we will not have a winner declared until next week, possibly not until June 7.
The fact that PA continues to have election integrity issues is just absurd. This should not be a difficult process, yet a state that is known for election corruption continues to struggle every cycle.
Source: The Hill