Saccone Refuses To Concede Until Every Vote Is Counted, 'Irregularities' Cleared Up
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SOMERSET TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- In his first TV interview since election day, Republican Rick Saccone says it's way too early to call it quits in his nail-biter race with Democrat Conor Lamb.
"You haven't conceded, right?" KDKA political editor Jon Delano asked Saccone on Thursday.
"That's right. We're still going through the process. It's not over yet, said Saccone, who asked to meet for the brief interview at a local gun shop, Johnson's Sporting Goods, in Somerset Township, Washington County.
Saccone won't concede even though the latest tally has him trailing Lamb by 627 votes out of 228,000 votes cast, a margin of just over two-tenths of one percent.
Republicans say all the military votes and provisional ballots need to be counted before a final outcome is known, meaning the results that could certify Lamb is congressman-elect won't be finalized until early April.
"We just want to make sure every vote is counted," says Saccone. "A team of people is going through that to make sure all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed."
On Wednesday, Chris Winkelman, chief counsel to the Republicans congressional campaign committee in Washington, said there were also irregularities that could have given the edge to Lamb.
"These counties use touch screen voting machines which can be miscalibrated at times. And we saw plenty of voters tell us about their attempts to vote for Rick Saccone and their vote showed up as a Conor Lamb vote," said Winkelman.
Delano: "Legal challenges ahead?"
Saccone: "I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not involved in the intricate details of that. I'm out getting petition signatures."
Signatures to run for Congress in the May Republican primary and the November general election in the new 14th congressional district, a district many say is safe Republican.