Mail-in ballots—widely and baselessly vilified by Republicans since 2020 as fraudulent—have now become the centerpiece of one Pennsylvania Republican's effort to edge out his opponent in the state's closely contested Senate GOP primary.
Former hedge fund CEO David McCormick sued the state board of elections Monday over its refusal to count mail-in ballots that were missing a handwritten date but were nonetheless date-stamped in time to be valid.
“Every Republican primary vote should be counted, including the votes of Pennsylvania’s active-duty military members who risk their lives to defend our constitutional right to vote,” Jess Szymanski, a McCormick spokesperson, said in a statement to The Washington Post.
McCormick is locked in a nail-biter with TV huckster and Trump endorsee Mehmet Oz, who currently leads the race by 0.1%, or roughly a 1,000 votes. In order to avoid an automatic recount, one of the two candidates would have to secure an edge of more than 0.5%.
Mail-in ballots in the state must be filled out, dated, and signed, but the envelopes they are placed in are postmarked and date-stamped when they are received by the corresponding county. McCormick's lawsuit came in the wake of a Friday ruling by a three-judge panel in a separate dispute that found the date provision was "immaterial" and violated the federal Civil Rights Act if used to reject a ballot.
Team McCormick agreed.
“These ballots were indisputably submitted on time — they were date-stamped upon receipt — and no fraud or irregularity has been alleged,” the lawsuit states. It further submitted that failing to count those mail-in votes violated voting rights guaranteed by both the Civil Rights Act and the state's constitution.
It's a predictable tack by McCormick, and one he signaled several weeks ago when the campaign hired GOP consultant Mike Roman, an expert in election challenges who helped Trump push his baseless fraud claims in 2020.
McCormick has reportedly won some 32% of the mail-in votes while Oz has garnered about 23% of them.
Just as predictably, the Oz campaign is calling the mail-in votes "legally rejected ballots" and accused McCormick of trying to subvert the election.
“Unfortunately, the McCormick legal team is following the Democrats’ playbook, a tactic that could have long-term harmful consequences for elections in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a clear contrast between Dr. Mehmet Oz’s efforts to secure America’s democratic process,” Oz Campaign Manager Casey Contres said in a statement Saturday. “As a party, and as a people, Dr. Mehmet Oz believes we must restore faith in our government institutions."
Despite the posturing from both Republicans, in all likelihood, this race is headed to recount territory—and the legal dispute over those mail-in ballots could potentially prove pivotal.
It's a messy GOP nightmare scenario in a Senate race Republicans are desperate to win. Donald Trump has already urged Oz to "declare victory.” And whichever candidate prevails, they will have to contend with campaigning statewide alongside the competing statewide GOP candidacy of white nationalist, 2020 truther, and anti-abortion radical Doug Mastriano, the GOP state senator who is now the party's gubernatorial nominee.
Did we mention that Lt. Gov. John Fetterman secured the Democratic Senate nomination with nearly 60% of the vote?
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