Recount begins in Pennsylvania Senate race with McCormick leading Casey by about 16,000 votes
The race for one of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seats still isn't over. An automatic recount started Wednesday and state law requires all counties to complete their recount by Nov. 26.
Officials in Philadelphia say it could take up to four days to tabulate all the ballots cast in the state's largest city. Election staffers in Philadelphia got back to work Wednesday in a warehouse in Northeast Philly counting ballots for the second time.
According to unofficial results, Republican Dave McCormick leads incumbent Democrat Bob Casey by roughly 16,000 votes.
"That is a staggeringly close number considering that 36,604 Philadelphians chose to undervote the race," said Philadelphia Commissioner Lisa M Deeley (D), meaning they voted for President but skipped over the Senate race.
"This should serve as a wake-up call for all voters in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. These down-ballot races, they matter," she added.
During a recount, state law requires that ballots get counted on a different machine than was used the first time as a way to verify accuracy.
City Commissioner Seth Bluestein (R) said: "We want to make sure the ballots are being scanned on different types of technology so we can be confident in the results."
The state will publish the final results of the recount the day before Thanksgiving. Casey has not conceded but McCormick has already declared victory in this race.
This is the fourth time the state has conducted a recount in an election since 2004. None of those times did the recount change the outcome.