Federal funds are expected to cover the cost of Pennsylvania’s Senate count, which is estimated at around $1 million.

Al Schmidt, Secretary of the Commonwealth, said that a statewide recount is triggered when the margin between the votes and the results is less than 0.5%.

The difference between Senator Bob Casey, D-Pa. and Senate-elect David McCormick, R-Pa. was 0.43%. There are still 80,000 mail-in and provisional ballots to be counted.

According to the Department of State at 4 pm local time, on the 14th of November, Casey had received 48.85% of the votes with 3,359 086 votes and McCormick was in second place with 48.90% of the votes with 3,385,115.

Schmidt said that the Pennsylvania taxpayers spent $1.053m on the last recount between McCormick, a cardiothoracic physician, and Dr. Oz.

In this case, approximately 7 million votes will be subjected to recount. Counties will begin the process on November 20th, and must complete it by noon on November 26th. Schmidt must receive their data by the 27th of November at 12 noon.

Schmidt stated that during the recount counties would use “a different methodology or different equipment” to tabulate results than they did in the initial count to identify potential issues.

Schmidt added that the results will be posted online on the 27th of November, the day prior to Thanksgiving. The state website’s election return page will also be updated as counties update unofficial votes from the original count. These updates are not part of the recount.

House Minority leader Bryan Cutler also criticized Casey’s refusal to waive the costly count.

Cutler said that throughout his career, Casey had publicly called for the enforcement and upholding of judicial standards. “The law and facts are clear: the election was fair and free; Dave McCormick will be our new U.S. Senator; a costly statewide count is unnecessary and redundant; and Democrat controlled counties are openly defying courts and plain language in the election law by trying to overturn a legally determined election result.”