After more than 1.3 million ballots were cast, less than a thousand votes separate Republican Senate candidates Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick, as more mail-in ballots have been counted, narrowing the lead Oz had on primary day May 17. One week later, McCormick filed a lawsuit compelling election officials to count mail-in ballots with missing dates on the return envelopes. He cited a recent decision by the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that mail-in ballots without a required date on the return envelope must be allowed in a 2021 Pennsylvania county judge race. The Oz campaign, with the support of the both the national and state Republican parties, is opposing the lawsuit.
Diane Gramley, president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, explains the importance of the final decision in the matter.
"The U.S. Supreme Court chose not to get involved in November 2020 [in another case involving Pennsylvania election results]," she tells AFN. "It will be interesting to see just how they respond to the lawsuit, which more than likely will end up in their laps."
She warns that "unless this is dealt with here in Pennsylvania, November 2022 does not bode well [for] Republicans taking the U.S. Senate and Republicans gaining more seats from Pennsylvania in the U.S. House."
Gramley is hopeful the high court will intervene so that voters in her state are assured their votes are taken into account.
"If the U.S. Supreme Court did in fact strike down the Third Circuit's ruling, that would be fantastic," she shares. "That would be what we would need in order to have assurances that our vote counted here in Pennsylvania – because until we get rid of no-excuse mail-in ballots one way or the other, we still don't know if our vote counts."
CBS News reports the contest is headed for a recount that will drag into June.
