Democrat clings to lead in House race as GOP eyes recount

CANONSBURG, PA.>> Republicans eyed a recount and a lawsuit over perceived irregularities in a closely watched U. S. House race in Pennsylvania where Democrat Conor Lamb clung to a slender lead Wednesday 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 firsttime candidate, saw his edge over Republican Rick Saccone shrink slightly, to 627 votes out ofmore 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 Tuesday.

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. This person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.

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.