Allegheny County Election Board calculates votes from 10 machines, reviews mail-in and provisional ballots
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) -- The Allegheny County Election Board was sworn in Friday and is working to sort out the remaining issues following Tuesday's primary election.
Inside the county's election warehouse, they were looking at getting votes from 10 voting machines that had not yet been counted.
Two of the machines had memory sticks with errors because they were not shut down properly, officials said. That was addressed and the more than 400 votes in them now have been calculated.
Of the other eight machines, four were missing the memory sticks, so the paper ballots are being used to calculate those votes.
Thirty-five absentee ballots still need to be counted, as they were not calculated on election night.
The board is also looking at 281 mail-in ballots that were either missing a signature, date or both. Lawyers from campaigns are in the warehouse to discuss with the board if the ballots should be counted or not.
There are also at least 1,900 provisional ballots from Allegheny County that still need to be counted. The return board is currently reviewing them too.
Keep checking our elections results page here as the remaining votes are counted.
University of Pittsburgh political science professor Chris Bonneau said the process is operating as it's supposed to.
"Just because votes are being counted doesn't mean they are found votes or new votes; these are votes that were legally cast by fellow citizens," Bonneau said.
Of the process, Bonneau said systems are more transparent now than they were even just 10 years ago.
"I don't see any reason that people should dispute the fact that their votes count," Bonneau said over Zoom.
The Democratic race for the 12th Congressional District had a razor-thin margin, but the AP declared Summer Lee the victor over Steve Irwin Friday evening.
On Twitter, Lee celebrated her victory while Irwin conceded.
In the Republican race for U.S. Senate, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick are facing off for the nomination.
Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by 1,079 votes, or 0.08 percentage points, out of 1,340,248 ballots counted as of 5 p.m. Friday. The race is close enough to trigger Pennsylvania's automatic recount law, with the separation between the candidates inside the law's 0.5% margin.
