Pennsylvania Secretary of State Won’t Order Recount

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D) on Friday said she would not order a recount her state’s election results as the Trump campaign attempts legal challenges in key battleground states.

The Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement: “Based on the unofficial returns submitted by all the counties to the Department of State, Secretary Boockvar has determined that she will not be ordering a recount and recanvass of the election returns in the counties, as no statewide candidate was defeated by one-half of one percent or less of the votes cast.  This includes the following races: President of the United States, Attorney General, Auditor General, and State Treasurer.”

The announcement comes as former Vice President Joe  Biden leads President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania by roughly 60,000 votes. 40,000 provisional ballots cast have been counted or partially tallied, according to state officials.

“We are extremely grateful to all 67 counties who have been working overtime and putting in an extraordinary effort to count every vote, with so far more than 6.8 million votes having been counted,” Boockvar stated. “The counties continue to adjudicate and count the approximately 100,000 provisional ballots issued to voters at the polls on Election Day, as well as the more than 28,000 military and overseas ballots that were cast in this election.”

Earlier Friday, attorneys for the Trump campaign withdrew from representing him in challenges to election results in Pennsylvania. The New York Times reported that Porter Wright lawyers “have held internal meetings to voice similar concerns about their firm’s election-related work for Mr. Trump and the Republican Party, according to people at the firm. At least one lawyer quit in protest.”