The battle to replace Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., will come down to the wire — and because of a rush of last-minute changes, it may be days before the outcome is finalized.
At stake could be control of the U.S. Senate, and whether Pennsylvanians elect Democrat John Fetterman or Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz after a bare-knuckled and extraordinary campaign for an open seat.
Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s towering lieutenant governor, spent much of the campaign recovering from a stroke in May, while fending off attacks by Oz that questioned whether he was honest about its effects and fit to serve.
With two weeks to go in the race, Fetterman turned in a rocky debate performance where he struggled to complete sentences and jumbled words throughout the hourlong televised event. It fueled concern inside his party that it damaged his chances.
On Tuesday, Fetterman’s campaign sued to try and overturn a U.S. Supreme Court decision banning the state from counting tens of thousands of undated or misdated ballots.
And in Philadelphia, voters who had missing or incorrect dates on their mail-in ballots were being allowed to file replacement ballots at City Hall or vote provisionally at their regular precincts Tuesday.
Hundreds of people whose names were published Friday by the Philadelphia City Commissioners, which is the city’s election board, showed up at City Hall on Monday to correct errors with dates as well as other flagged issues, including missing security envelopes and missing signatures. A handful of county elections boards made efforts to notify voters that they could fix ballot issues.
Republicans have also complained that some voting places have run out of paper “and voters are being forced to wait hours or simply leave and come back.”
Polling places in Pennsylvania are running out of paper and voters are being forced to wait hours or simply leave and come back.
This is called disenfranchising voters!
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) November 8, 2022
In all, it may take days until the final results are clear, experts have warned.
“We must again ask for patience,” Leigh Chapman, Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of state, told voters.
To underscore the importance of the contest, President Joe Biden campaigned in Pennsylvania for Fetterman three times in the final three weeks, while former President Donald Trump came in to hold a rally for Oz, his endorsed candidate.
Polls show a close race.
Oz, 62, carried his own baggage into the election in the presidential battleground state. The smooth-talking and wealthy heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity just moved from his longtime home in neighboring New Jersey — a mansion overlooking the Hudson River, just across from Manhattan — and barely won a bruising primary in which conservative opponents cast him as an out-of-touch Hollywood liberal.
Pennsylvania’s seat is coming open because Toomey decided against seeking a third term. Pennsylvania polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Oz would be the first Muslim to serve in the U.S. Senate.
The election was the most expensive for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, surpassing $300 million. Money from national groups poured in, and Oz spent more than $25 million of his own fortune on the race.
The Associated Press contributed to this article