As President-elect Donald Trump busily assembles his new administration, Democrat super-lawyer Marc Elias is quietly trying to reverse a key Republican win in a U.S. Senate race.
Although The Associated Press has already declared Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick the victory over Democrat incumbent Bob Casey, there are still tens of thousands of outstanding “provisional” ballots that can be put to mischievous use.
In the latest episode of the Drill Down podcast, Peter Schweizer tells how Elias, whom Schweizer has called “a master of the political dark arts,” is trying to trigger a recount in Pennsylvania in a longshot effort to keep the Senate seat in Democratic hands. The ballots in question, 87,000 provisional votes, are ones that have some question of validity. McCormick has a 40,000-vote margin, and of the provisional ballots, only 30,000 or so come from Casey strongholds.
“That’s one of the reasons why the Associated Press has called it,” Schweizer says. “But what Marc Elias is trying to do is judge shopping and he’s trying to figure out a way to trigger a mandatory recount.”