With the race between Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and Dave McCormick still not settled, over one week after the election, Pennsylvania is beginning to complete a recount after a law kicked in because of the close counts.

“We have received notification from the Department of State that as a result of the one half of 1% margin (in the race’s election results), it has triggered a mandatory recount under state law,” Commissioner Mike Sofranko said Thursday.

Statewide, the race has McCormick at 48.9% or 3,388,638 votes, to Casey, who has 48.5% or 3,364,542 votes; however thousands of mail-ins and provisional ballots are still being counted in some counties.

Locally, voters in Carbon County awarded the win to McCormick, with 22,419 votes, to Casey’s 11,429 votes, but the mandatory recount will commence on Nov. 20. McCormick also won in Schuylkill and Northampton counties, while Casey won Monroe and Lehigh.

Jennifer Ketchledge, county elections director, said that her office will start the recount once all provisionals are scanned and tabulated, and a new project is created in the voting system. The county had 388 provisionals cast on Election Day.

She also noted that the recount must be completed by noon on Nov. 26.

The Associated Press has already called the race for McCormick, but Casey has yet to concede, wanting the outstanding provisional and overseas votes counted in an attempt to close the gap.

Sofranko pointed out that this mandatory recount will cost the taxpayers and not the candidates.

“I think you need to be aware that the taxpayer pays for this recount,” he said. “Had it been above 1% of a half of percentage point, then the candidate would have had to pay for the recount if they requested it.

“This recount is paid for by you, the taxpayer. That is a little frustrating that these are some of the guidelines we all have to fall within and be done.”

This is the eighth time there has been an automatic recount in a race in recent years, Sofranko said. Each recount cost the county between $500,000 and over $1 million.

Mail-ins, provisionals and indecision

In addition to the recount, the county spoke about a number of things surrounding the elections.

Ketchledge reported that a total of 1,028 mail-in ballots were sent out but never returned, however that number is probably lower due to the 388 provisionals that were still being counted.

She also pointed out that state guidelines are lacking, which have led to counties being the ones to determine if a mail-in or provisional ballot is fully completed and could be counted or if it should be discarded.

“The state has to make it a little bit easier,” said Commissioner Rocky Ahner, adding that there are more steps for voters who choose to vote by mail-in or provisional than there are for voting in-person on Election Day.”

“I think the biggest thing that I have seen is the state seems to have found more ways to reject a ballot than ways to accept the ballot,” Sofranko added. “But yet, as they’re finding ways to reject it, they’re telling everybody to get out and vote. They need to get that together. There has to be that we want you to vote, here’s how you vote and this is how we can accept your ballot. But instead, it’s get out and vote, get out and vote, but if you don’t do this, this, this, this, this, and this, it’s not counted, and by the way, we’re not going to make that decision, we’re going to leave you in the county to make that decision.”

The board said that the state continually defers questions to the county solicitors instead of making decisions, meaning that what one county may do may not be what another county does.

“There is nothing cut and dry and those people (legislators) got to get their act together on the state level,” Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said.

“That’s what was frustrating for the election bureau because we literally would ask them questions and they would say ‘well, this county does this but this county does this,” Ketchledge said. “There was no straight answers. All of the counties feel the same way that I do. We just want something so everybody does that same thing so that we can move forward and fix things. But there are not straight answers. There’s nothing.”

County Solicitor Robert Frycklund said that he doesn’t mind making an interpretation, however, that interpretation may differ from other counties, which then opens Carbon up to challenges.

“That’s a failure of the Department of State,” he said.

Nothstein said that this breakdown in statewide decisions could come back to haunt the counties, especially if and when challenges occur.

The commissioners all agreed that all they want from the state is uniformity and guidance when it comes to election operations.