The Republican National Committee is intervening against the case of David McCormick’s campaign, trying to enforce the counting of undated absentee ballots in the Pennsylvania Senate primary, as his opponent, prominent cardiac surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, leads with a small percent.
An RNC official confirmed reports of Fox News Digital’s intervention Monday night, insisting the move was not a signal of support for Oz or opposition to McCormick, but rather an attempt to preserve the integrity of the election.
“The RNC is interfering in this lawsuit with the GOP in Pennsylvania because election laws are meant to be obeyed, and changing the rules when the ballots are being counted is damaging the integrity of our election,” RNC chief adviser Matt said in a statement. Reimer.
Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick Getty Images
“Each of the leading Republican candidates in the Pennsylvania Senate would represent Keystone State better than a Democrat, but Pennsylvania law is clear that undated absentee ballots may not count,” Reimer added. “This is another example of the RNC’s iron commitment to ensuring the highest standards of transparency and security during the election process.
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The Pennsylvania Republican Party also condemned the move. “While the Pennsylvania Republican Party looks forward to supporting the Republican Senate Republican nominee from Pennsylvania, whoever he is, we strongly oppose the counting of undated mail in the mail,” the party said in a statement. “Pennsylvania law and our courts have been very clear that undated ballots should not be counted.”
McCormick’s campaign filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania after Monday’s opening hours to ensure that counties abide by a federal court of appeals requesting the British Commonwealth State Court to ask counties to count the ballots immediately. sent by mail, which lacks the required handwritten date when returning the envelope.
Dave McCormick shook hands with supporters at a rally to gain support for his candidacy in the Senate. (Photo by Aimee Dilger / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images)
In the case, McCormick’s campaign claims that at least two counties – Blair and Allegheny – have suggested not counting the ballots as part of their unofficial result, which each county must report to the state on Tuesday.
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At 6pm on Monday, Oz, backed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick with 992 votes (0.07%) out of 1,341,037 ballots. The race is probably close enough to trigger the Pennsylvania Automatic Census Act, which applies within a 0.5% margin of the law.
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The number of ballots sent by post without a handwritten note remains unclear. While McCormick, a former CEO of a hedge fund and a former Treasury Department official in the George W. Bush administration, is lagging behind in the general vote, he outperforms Oz in the postal vote.
McCormick said “every Republican vote should count” at a Conservative talk show in Philadelphia on Monday.
“The premise we need to have, in my opinion as Republicans, is that all Republican votes count, and that’s something we all think I think is a principle,” McCormick said. “So that’s the principle we hold here. We adhered to this principle before this court decision. This court decision simply shed more light on it. “
The campaign’s case is based on a ruling Friday by the U.S. District Court of Appeals, which ruled that the U.S. election law’s requirement for a date until the voter’s signature on the outside of the return envelopes was “irrelevant.”
Casey Contress, Oz’s campaign manager, condemned McCormick’s legal team in a statement Saturday.
Contres noted that McCormick “is likely to be short” and said that “McCormick’s legal team is following the Democrats’ book, a tactic that could have long-term detrimental effects on the British Commonwealth of Pennsylvania elections.”
“Dr. Mehmet Oz continues to respectfully allow the Pennsylvania counting process to take place and trusts the Republican voters, who we believe have chosen him as their candidate,” Contres added. “That’s why our campaign will oppose the McCormick legal team’s request that election commissions ignore both the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the U.S. election law and accept legally rejected ballots.
Democrat attorney Mark Elias, who represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 and who imposed a multi-state challenge against voter identification laws, seems to have defended McCormick’s cause.
“My team was literally working on the same case for the November election,” Elias said on Twitter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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