Sen. Bob Casey still not conceding Pennsylvania race

Democratic Sen. Bob Casey has no plans to concede his race against Republican Dave McCormick, citing thousands of ballots that must be counted. 

Mr. Casey’s campaign argued on Saturday that over 100,000 ballots are left to count and could bridge the gap between the two candidates. The Associated Press called the race for Mr. McCormick on Thursday. 

But Casey campaign spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel said the race hasn’t been called by numerous other outlets, including The New York Times, NBC, CNN, ABC, CBS and Decision Desk. 

She laid out the senator’s possible path to victory, pointing to “tens of thousands of provisional ballots favorable” to Mr. Casey. Indeed, 20,000 provisional ballots — which are cast by voters whose eligibility hasn’t been proved — are in Philadelphia County, 12,600 in Allegheny County and 6,500 in Montgomery County. 

In Chester County, 3,500 provisional ballots and 1,800 military ballots remain, and in Bucks County 5,200 provisional ballots, 2,500 mail ballots and up to 3,000 military ballots are outstanding. 

“Pennsylvanians deserve to have their voices heard, and as state officials have made clear, counties across Pennsylvania need more time to tabulate remaining votes,” Ms. McDaniel said. 

Mr. Casey’s doubling down on his refusal to concede follows a lawsuit filed by Mr. McCormick’s campaign challenging the provisional ballots in Philadelphia County, which Ms. McDaniel said was a sign that the “McCormick campaign has acknowledged these provisional ballots could impact the outcome of the election.” 

At issue in Mr. McCormick’s lawsuit to ensure unlawful ballots aren’t counted. 

“Basically, if you look at all the math, the reason the AP called the race is there’s no path to Senator Casey overcoming my lead, which is more than 32,000 votes,” Mr. McCormick told reporters on Friday. “But there are ballots that will be continued to be counted, and that lawsuit is just to make sure that there is an adequate number of observers that are overseeing that counting process.”

As of Saturday, Mr. McCormick still led Mr. Casey by over 41,000 votes. If the provisional ballots prove to be in Mr. Casey’s favor and he overtakes Mr. McCormick, it won’t reverse the GOP’s majority in the upper chamber, where they control 53 seats to the Democrats’ 46.