GOP weighs recount in early test
Democrat holds on to thin lead in race seen as indicator for midterm elections
Republicans were yesterday considering a recount and a lawsuit over perceived irregularities in a closely watched United States House race in Pennsylvania where Democrat Conor Lamb clung to a slender lead in the longtime GOP stronghold friendly to President Donald Trump.
With the last batch of absentee ballots counted, Lamb, a 33-year-old former prosecutor and first-time candidate, saw his edge over Republican Rick Saccone shrink slightly, to 627 votes out of more than 224,000 cast, according to unofficial results.
The four counties in the Pittsburgh-area district reported they had about 375 uncounted provisional, military and overseas ballots. They have seven days to count the provisional ballots, and the deadline to receive military and overseas ballots is next Wednesday.
With the margin so close, supporters of either candidate can ask for a recount.
The GOP is considering lodging a recount request, and county officials reported receiving a letter from a law firm requesting that they preserve their records, something the counties say they do anyway under state law.
Separately, Republicans mulled legal action, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
Complaints could include that party lawyers were prevented from observing the counting of some absentee ballots, voting machines erroneously recorded votes from Lamb, and voters were confused by some information from the state elections website.
The race is seen nationally as an indicator of Democratic enthusiasm and GOP vulnerability heading into the November elections that will determine whether Republicans retain their control of Congress.
Trump won the district, in Republican hands for 15 years, by about 20 percentage points in 2016. It was open after Republican Tim Murphy resigned last year amid revelations that he had asked a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair to get an abortion. — AP