Allegheny County recount in U.S. Senate race likely to show thousands opted not to vote for senator
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — With a recount in Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race required by law, some have questioned why thousands of voters appeared to have skipped the race for U.S. Senate while voting for president.
Allegheny County will begin its recount in the U.S. Senate race on Wednesday, and it's likely to confirm that thousands of voters voted for president but not for senator.
Statewide, nearly 71,000 voters voted for president but not for senator, more than enough to make up the approximately 17,000 vote difference between Republican Dave McCormick and Democrat Bob Casey. So, why the decline in voters?
"There's nothing nefarious," Allegheny County Elections Manager David Voye said. "There are a certain amount of voters who only vote in presidential general elections, and there's probably the same percentage of voters who just vote for the office of president within those elections."
Voye has worked in the elections office since the late 1980s, and he said in Allegheny County more than 9,000 voters skipped the Senate race this year.
It doesn't mean something is wrong with the ballot or the tabulation, says Jennifer Morrell, CEO of The Elections Group, which trains election officials across the country.
"That sort of behavior we saw all the time," Morrell said. "There were certainly plenty of elections that I've overseen where entire sections of the ballot went unvoted."
In Pennsylvania, nearly 151,000 voters skipped the state attorney general race and more than 200,000 didn't vote in the state auditor general and treasurer races. Voye says some people even showed up to vote but left every race blank.
"I believe we have approximately 75 ballots that were cast in this county, either by mail or in person, that did not vote for a single candidate," Voye said.
Call it a protest non-vote, but actual votes that won't be counted are the undated or miss-dated mail-in ballots. On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled again that state law requires a correct date even if the ballot is received on time. In Allegheny County, says Voye, that ruling disqualified 194 voters.
As for the recount, about 100 county workers will be sworn in on Wednesday and ballots will be run through different scanners.
"Does it change a result?" KDKA-TV's Jon Delano asked.
"Very minimal," Voye said. "We had a recount a few years ago in a local race where the ballots did not change at all. These machines are very efficient."
KDKA-TV Investigative Producer Tory Wegerski contributed to this report.