Pennsylvania court orders contested ballots counted in Senate primary

HARRISBURG - A state court agreed Thursday night in a ballot-counting lawsuit with the campaign of David McCormick, who is in a neck-and-neck Republican primary contest for the U.S.

Senate against celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz.In the decision, Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer ordered counties to count the ballots in question, although her decision could be reversed, depending on what the U.S.

Supreme Court does in the coming days on a separate case.Because of the high court’s involvement, Jubelirer ordered counties to keep the undated ballots separate from other ballots and to count them separately.The ballots in question are roughly 880 mail-in ballots that lack a handwritten date on the envelope.Dr.

Michael Hagen, Associate Professor at Temple University, discusses the Pa. GOP Senate race recount.Jubelirer’s decision comes as the race between McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, and Oz is in the midst of a statewide recount.Roughly 900 votes separate McCormick and Oz in the May 17 primary, out of more than 1.3 million ballots cast.Even if the ballots are counted, many Republicans believe McCormick would be unable to make up the gap with Oz in a recount.Oz’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and the state Republican Party have opposed McCormick in court.State law requires a voter to write a date next to their signature on the outside of their mail-in ballot return envelopes.