宾夕法尼亚州哈里斯堡。-宾夕法尼亚之巅选举一名官员星期三说，在上周共和党参议员初选中，前两名候选人之间的差距很小，足以引发全州范围的重新计票，将结果拖到6月份，候选人将在法庭上战斗。
该州代理国务卿利·查普曼(Leigh Chapman)表示，排名前两位的候选人——著名心脏外科医生穆罕默德·奥兹(Mehmet Oz)和前对冲基金首席执行官大卫·麦考密克(David McCormick)——的票数差异在该州法律规定的强制重新计票范围内。
截至周三，该州公布的1，343，643张选票中，奥兹获得了前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的支持，领先麦考密克902票，即0.07个百分点。
麦考密克竞选团队面临的一个问题是，他是否有足够的未决选票来弥补与奥兹的差距。
美国国务院估计，各县仍有大约1万张临时和缺席选票需要统计，但不知道共和党选民投了多少票。
该部官员说，还有860张共和党邮寄选票的信封上没有手写日期，这是法院案件的主题。
在重新计票时，大部分选票只是通过电子方式重新扫描。选举工作人员用手检查选票，如果扫描仪没有记录任何投票或认为是重复投票而不予考虑，他们可能会发现那里有更多的选民，选举律师说。
他们说，投票中最大的变化可能来自数据输入错误的发现，这是一个人为错误，比如在计算选区投票数据时颠倒了数字，这可能发生在任何一个方向。
根据宾夕法尼亚州的重新计票法，候选人之间的差距必须在法律规定的0.5%以内。在重新计票完成之前，美联社不会宣布获胜者。这可能要持续到6月8日。
获胜者将在11月的中期选举中面对民主党副州长约翰·费特曼(John Fetterman)，民主党人认为这是他们在分歧严重的参议院获得席位的最佳机会。现任共和党参议员帕特·图米(Pat Toomey)在连任两届后即将退休。
各县向州选举办公室报告非官方结果的最后期限是周二。即便如此，各县周三仍在继续清点数千张选票，包括临时选票、军队选票和海外缺席选票。
查普曼的重新计票命令是强制性的——除非落选的候选人要求不执行。麦考密克没有计划拒绝重新计票，并在一份声明中说，“我们期待着一个迅速的解决方案，以便我们的政党能够团结起来，在秋季击败”费特曼。
各县将于下周开始重新计票，直到6月7日结束，并在另一天向州政府报告结果。
在这种情况下，麦考密克希望得到帮助，缩小与奥兹的票数差距。
他的竞选团队已经要求宾夕法尼亚州最高法院强制各县立即统计这些选票。下级法院已下令下周二就此事举行听证会。
奥兹、共和党全国委员会和州共和党反对麦考密克的要求。影响这些选票的另一个案件可能会提交到美国最高法院。
Oz, McCormick race heads into recount in Pa. Senate primary
HARRISBURG, Pa. --Pennsylvania's topelectionofficial said Wednesday that the margin between the top two candidates in last week's Republican primary for U.S. Senate is tight enough to trigger a statewide recount, dragging the outcome into June as the candidates fight in court.
The state’s acting secretary of state, Leigh Chapman, said the difference in vote totals for the top two finishers — celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick — fall within the margin in state law for a mandatory recount.
Oz, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by 902 votes, or 0.07 percentage points, out of 1,343,643 ballots reported by the state as of Wednesday.
One question for McCormick’s campaign is whether there are enough outstanding ballots for him to make up the difference with Oz.
The Department of State estimated that counties had about 10,000 provisional and absentee ballots remaining to count, but it did not know how many were cast by Republican voters.
There are another 860 Republican mail-in ballots without handwritten dates on their envelopes that are the subject of court cases, department officials said.
In a recount, most of the ballots are simply rescanned electronically. Election workers check ballots by hand if a scanner recorded no vote or dismissed it as a double vote, and they may find more voters there,electionlawyers say.
The biggest change in votes could come from the discovery of a data entry error, a human mistake — such as transposed numbers when tallying precinct voting data — that could go in either direction, they say.
Under Pennsylvania’s recount law, the separation between the candidates must be inside the law’s 0.5% margin. The Associated Press will not declare a winner in the race until the recount is complete. That could take until June 8.
The winner will face Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in November’s midterm elections in what Democrats see as their best opportunity to pick up a seat in the closely divided Senate. The incumbent, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, is retiring after serving two terms.
The deadline for counties to report their unofficial results to the state elections office was Tuesday. Even so, counties continued counting thousands of ballots on Wednesday, including provisional, military and overseas absentee ballots.
Chapman’s recount order is mandatory — unless the losing candidate requests that it not be carried out. McCormick had no plans to decline a recount and said in a statement that “we look forward to a swift resolution so our party can unite and defeat” Fetterman in the fall.
Counties will begin the recount next week and have until June 7 to finish and another day to report results to the state.
In those cases, McCormick is hoping to get help closing the gap in votes with Oz.
His campaign has asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to compel counties to promptly count those ballots. A lower court has ordered a hearing next Tuesday on the matter.
Oz, the Republican National Committee and the state Republican Party oppose McCormick’s request. A separate case that affects those same ballots could go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
