The U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick is headed for a statewide recount. The Associated Press had previously called the race for McCormick, but Casey did not waive his right to a recount. As of Wednesday, McCormick led by about 28,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million ballots counted, which is within the 0.5% margin threshold to trigger an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania law. The recount, which will largely involve running paper ballots through high-speed scanners, must begin no later than November 20 and finish by noon on November 26.
However, Casey's campaign is pushing for the inclusion of thousands of ballots that were rejected on Election Day because they didn't meet Pennsylvania's ballot standards. This has already led to one lawsuit and is likely to lead to more. The Casey campaign alleges that Republicans are systematically challenging the provisional ballots of registered Democrats, delaying the vote counting process. Meanwhile, McCormick's campaign consultant, Mark Harris, accused large Democratic-controlled counties of dragging out the process by not adding the results of processed ballots to vote totals. The recount is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $1 million.