The lawsuit, filed late Monday in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, asks the state to compel all 67 counties’ boards of elections to tally Republican mail-in ballots received on time but without a handwritten date on the outside envelope, as mandated by the statute.
McCormick campaign lawyers are funding their argument on a federal appellate court's late decision that such ballots should be counted in a dispute over a Pennsylvania election in 2021.
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“Both the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit have held that mail-in ballots should not be disqualified simply because the voters failed to hand write a date on the exterior mailing envelope of their ballots,” McCormick campaign Chief Legal Counsel Chuck Cooper said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
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“Because all ballots are time-stamped by the County Boards of Elections on receipt, a voter’s handwritten date is meaningless,” he added. “All timely ballots of qualified Republican voters should be counted.”
Oz led McCormick by .08 percentage points, with most precincts reporting as ballots continued to be counted six days after the primary election. However, McCormick says that he thinks he won the nomination and insists he will overtake Oz once the remaining Republican mail-in ballots are tallied. McCormick’s claims are viable with some Election Day votes and a sizable number of mail-in ballots and overseas military ballots left to count.
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However, going to court presents a political risk for McCormick, at least in the court of Republican public opinion.
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Former President Donald Trump, who supported Oz, is critical of mail-in ballots generally, as well as lawsuits filed to force states and municipalities to count votes in ways not expressly permitted by state law. Grassroots Conservatives have historically opposed court-ordered rule changes but not necessarily mail-in balloting. However, Trump’s ranting has made Republican voters suspicious of the latter and even more troubled by the former.
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The McCormick campaign thinks its lawsuit has a minimal risk because the goal here, unlike legal wrangling in the 2020 presidential contest, is to ensure that all Republican voters have their ballots counted.
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“Every Republican primary vote should be counted, including the votes of Pennsylvania’s active-duty military members who risk their lives to defend our constitutional right to vote. When every Republican vote is counted, Dave looks forward to uniting the party and defeating socialist John Fetterman in the fall,” said McCormick campaign spokeswoman Jess Szymanski.