Pennsylvania GOP candidate echoes Trump’s election conspiracy theories with new election lawsuit targeting mail-in ballots

The election campaign for David McCormick has filed a lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania hoping to contest the Republican primary results which show him nearly tied with Trump-endorsed candidate, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

The lawsuit filed by McCormick's campaign has raised concern about one issue Republicans have repeatedly fought against: mail-in ballots. Using a defense repeatedly echoed by former President Donald Trump following his election loss in 2020, McCormick's campaign argues that some ballots lack handwritten dates. .

According to HuffPost, McCormick's lawsuit "asks the state’s Commonwealth Court to require counties to promptly count mail-in ballots that lack a required handwritten date on the return envelope. It is the first — but likely not the last — lawsuit in the contest between Oz and McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO."

Per the lawsuit, McCormick's campaign team also insists that "at least two counties — Blair and Allegheny — suggested they would not count the ballots as part of their unofficial result that each county must report to the state Tuesday."

Appearing on a conservative radio show in Philadelphia on Monday, May 23, McCormick weighed in with his take on the election outcome as he insisted “every Republican vote should count.”

“The premise we should have, I believe, as Republicans is that all Republican votes count, and that’s something we’ve all, I think, held as a principle,” McCormick said. “And so that’s the principle we’re holding here. We held that principle before this court ruling. This court ruling just illuminated it more.”

In the wake of the lawsuit, Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) administration has indicated that it would release guidance on how counties should proceed with addressing the impacted ballots. However, no directives have been made public as of yet.

As of Monday, May 23, Oz led the ballot count by a total of 992 votes, which is only equivalent to 0.07% percentage points. Due to the election results being less than a 0.5% margin, the outcome may automatically trigger a recount.