PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Control of the U.S. Senate has been won by Republicans, but in Pennsylvania, three-term Senator and Scranton native Bob Casey (D) is facing a narrow race for his seat.
As of Thursday, Pennsylvania's Senate race between Democratic incumbent Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick is still too early to call according to the Associated Press.
Thursday morning Casey's campaign released a statement saying the following:
“The count in Pennsylvania is still continuing. Yesterday, the vote margin shrunk by 50,000 votes and this race is now within half a point, the threshold for automatic recounts in Pennsylvania. With tens of thousands more votes to be counted, we are committed to ensuring every Pennsylvanian's vote is heard and confident that at the end of that process, Senator Casey will be re-elected.”
Pennsylvania's Secretary of State must order a recount by 5:00 p.m. on November 14. The recount would have to be completed by November 26.
McCormick (R) has a nearly 30,000-vote lead, which decreased overnight from roughly 31,000 Wednesday night. Many of the ballots came in from democratic strongholds like Philadelphia and its suburbs.
Thursday though, most ballots have been counted with outstanding ballots largely remaining in Cambria County where McCormick holds a roughly 24-point lead in the vote.
Cambria County faced issues on election day that saw a court-ordered extension of voting from 8 to 10 p.m. on election night. Any ballots cast past 8 p.m. were counted as provisional votes, which need to be verified by election officials before being counted.
The AP gave this update Wednesday on the state of the race:
CANDIDATES: Casey (D) vs. McCormick (R) and three others
WINNER: Too early to call.
POLL CLOSING TIME: 8 p.m. ET Tuesday