Kyle Sammin: Dave McCormick won. Bob Casey should not drag the state through a pointless recount.
Tim Hartman
The race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania was tight. The race between Dave McCormick and Bob Casey was even tighter. But at the end of the day, both Republicans were leading by an amount unlikely to be overturned. By this afternoon, that “unlikely” is becoming “impossible.”
Casey’s people say their man has a path to victory if the few uncounted votes left are in their favor. They’re wrong, and should concede now and save the taxpayers the expense of a recount.
Philadelphia, the normal source of late-breaking Democratic votes, is nearly finished counting — fewer than ten thousand ballots remain there. The four suburban counties are in similar condition. Perhaps Casey’s people remember the interminable process of counting the votes in 2020 and think they have the time to spare. Perhaps they think, like Al Franken’s campaign did in Minnesota in 2008, they can get election officials and judges to squint hard enough at some spoiled ballots to draw out the necessary margin.
But Pennsylvania’s election system, while still deeply flawed, has improved since 2020. They started counting the mail vote at the beginning of the day, not after polls closed. That means they are already a day ahead of the 2020 pace. Moreover, with the pandemic ended, fewer people voted by mail, so there are fewer to count in the first place. The rules are more certain, thanks to state supreme court rulings, with less wiggle room to challenge the exclusion of improper ballots. An added thorn in Casey’s side is that this time, unlike 2020, Trump told his voters to vote early. The mail vote is still more Democratic than Republican, but not by nearly as much.
There is one final wrinkle that will seal the deal for McCormick. In Cambria County (which Trump carried by 37 percentage points in 2020) mechanical difficulties mean that the whole county is still being hand-counted. Two-thirds of that deeply Republican county — around 40 or 50 thousand ballots — is still yet to be reported. Experts say Cambria will net McCormick 20,000 votes.
It’s over — for Kamala and for Bob.
It’s time to let go of the dream of six more years in Washington and let McCormick get moving. Casey wants to be perceived as the elder statesman of Pennsylvania politics, and this is the time to act like it. Concessions are not legally binding, and the counting will go on either way. But respect for our democracy (remember that?) requires accepting that a loss is a loss.
McCormick deserves the chance to hit the ground running. And the people of this commonwealth deserve not to have their money thrown away on a no-hope recount. Eighteen years was a good run, but the people have spoken.
Kyle Sammin is the managing editor of Broad + Liberty.
If McCormick defeats Casey that means Sen. John Fetterman will be serving as the senior United States senator from Pennsylvania, serving since 2023.
If you’d like to listen to Joe Rogan interview Sen. John Fetterman, it is episode #2222 and was just released on November 2, 2024 and runs for 2hr, 7 mins. It is quite an eye opener of an interview.
I remember a Sunday news show back in the sixties which was a half-hour update/discussion between Senator Joseph Clark (D), and Senator Hugh Scott (R). I don’t think it was on every week, but it was frequent. They did not agree on a lot, but both would speak about what Pennsylvanians cared about and was going on in Washington. Imagine elected officials from both parties actually listening to the citizens. Maybe Fetterman and McCormick could consider something similar.
Agreed, but that’s not what casey will do. Where rubber meets road, democratic politicians are everything they accuse republicans of being. All politicians are the same in this regard.
Absolutely nothing changes in a few days even a week delay. It’s not the Presidency. There isn’t a huge handover. Nobody can start legally until they are sworn in. Until then they are free to find staff.
You’re right, we should not wait until all of the votes are counted. If this had been a Republican candidate you would be demanding that all of the votes were counted to ensure the rights of We the People.
No one said don’t count the ballots. The journalist said, don’t waste resources demanding a RECOUNT and proceeded to illustrate how mathematically a possible path to victory was not as sound as Casey’s campaign was claiming. Given the final the results of the day seems like Kyle was right.
A recount is only solution to make sure that the vote has not been rigged.
Judah, are you suggesting that there was election fraud in the election? Because I’ve been told for the last 4 years that our elections are secure. Regardless, it’s time to let it go. There is no available path for Casey to retain his seat.
So you want to make sure there are no anomalies? Then four years ago when 20M more voters showed up you must have supported recounts.
See, we found common ground.
As a matter of fact I did support recounts. Because I wanted to be sure that Trump couldn’t claim that the vote was rigged and prevent the peaceful transition of power. Oh, wait a minute………….he did that in spite of that and ignored U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr that 2020 was the most secure election in American history.
Who knows the same thing might happen again on January 6, 2025….wait a minute. It did not happen under Obama and Biden has already stated that there will be a peaceful transition of power.
Who cares? Donald Trump will be your president in 70 days.
A big part of that was numerous legal victories by GOP lawyers prior to election day that guarantee transparency, eliminated voting by non-citizens and purged voter rolls of deceased individuals, duplicates and illegals. Texas alone removed over 1 million deceased, out of state or illegal individuals that were still on the voter rolls.
I think it’s a disgrace Casey hasn’t conceded yet – yes they can and will (and should!) continue to count all ballots, and concession isn’t legally binding if they found Casey got more votes (he didn’t). But it’s clear PA – and America – voted red – it was a sweep, clearly – and Casey is trying to stay in power, he’s trying to thwart the will of the people. Is he implying we voted all red for President, AG, etc, but made an exception and voted blue for him? Very immature, in my opinion. I think less of him for it and look forward to his (eventual) concession.