McCormick is accused by Casey campaign of attempting to 'disenfranchise' voters through lawsuits.

Senator-elect Dave McCormick is being accused by the campaign of incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, of trying to "disenfranchise" voters through lawsuits.

"Senator Casey's campaign manager, Tiernan Donohue, stated that David McCormick and his allies are attempting to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters through litigation that could impact the election outcome. Donohue urged that all Pennsylvanians' voices be heard as local county election officials continue to count votes, allowing the democratic process to determine the election result."

The McCormick campaign did not respond to Planet Chronicle Digital's request for comment.

Under Pennsylvania law, an automatic recount is triggered if the margin between McCormick and Casey remains below 0.5% as of Wednesday afternoon, with McCormick leading by 29,338 votes or a 0.43% margin, according to the election results website.

On Friday, McCormick declared his victory in the race, but he also filed two lawsuits against the Philadelphia County Board of Elections and its commissioners regarding an estimated 15,000-20,000 provisional ballots still being counted that could impact the outcome of the case. McCormick requested permission to challenge the validity of these ballots, citing issues such as missing or not matching signatures and the lack of a secrecy envelope.

McCormick requested that provisional ballots from voters who had requested mail-in or absentee ballots be sequestered and held pending action from the U.S. Supreme Court or a global challenge as to all such ballots. In Genser v. Butler County, the state Supreme Court ruled last month that mail-in ballots that arrived on time but lacked dates or had the wrong dates on their envelopes could still be included in the vote count.

On Tuesday, the Republican Party and the Republican National Committee submitted a petition to the state Supreme Court, requesting that it overturn its previous ruling.

When the AP declared McCormick the winner of the Senate race at 4:09 p.m. on Thursday, he was leading by more than 30,000 votes. Despite an estimated 91,000 votes remaining uncounted, the AP stated that there were not enough votes in areas supporting Casey to close the gap. Initially, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., refused to invite McCormick to the new-senator orientation this week due to the thousands of votes still outstanding.

Schumer has agreed to invite McCormick and Democratic Sen.-elect Gallego to the Senate, following pressure from GOP senators.

Planet Chronicle' Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.