John Fetterman's campaign warns counting could take 'several days'

Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman's campaign sent a memo to reporters Monday morning saying that the vote count in Pennsylvania could take 'several days' in his nail-biting race against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz. 

'Buckle up for a long week,' said a memo penned by Fetterman's Campaign Manager Brendan McPhillips. 'This race is close, and we should all be prepared for a process that takes several days before all eligible voters are properly counted and the results are clear.' 

Once again, Pennsylvanians are able to use mail-in ballots to cast their votes - and around 1.4 million were requested this election. 

Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman's campaign sent a memo to reporters Monday morning saying that the vote count in Pennsylvania could take 'several days' in his nail-biting race against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz

After Fetterman's rocky debate performance, Pennsylvania's polls have narrowed further, with Oz taking a .1 percent lead in the Real Clear Politics polling average in the last four days, making the race a true toss-up 

According to Spotlight PA, roughly 70 percent of those requests came from registered Democrats. And the biggest share of requests came from Allegheny County, which surrounds Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. 

Philadelphia's suburban counties, including Bucks, Montgomery and Northampton, came after Allegheny and Philadelphia, in number of mail-in ballots requested. 

Pennsylvania's Republican-dominated legislature imposed a rule that won't allow election workers to start counting the mail-in ballots until 7 a.m. Tuesday morning - meaning results from in-person voting could likely be reported before those ballots that were mailed in. 

Fetterman's campaign called this 'an intentional move to help Republicans baselessly sow doubt about the election results when it suits them.' 

Like in 2020, when former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden were on the ballot, Oz could look drastically ahead of Fetterman on election night, only to have his lead chipped away as more mail-in ballots are counted. 

'Because Pennsylvania is one of the only states that reports Election Day totals first before ballots cast by mail, and because more populated counties around Philadelphia can take longer to report, we should expect one of the most dramatic shifts in the country from initial GOP support in early results to stronger Democratic gains as more votes are processed,' Fetterman's campaign warned.

County officials in Allegheny, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties told Spotlight PA they expected to be finished counting the mail-in ballots by Wednesday. 

A Bucks County official estimated that counting could be concluded Wednesday or Thursday. 

On top of that, voters have until November 14 in Pennsylvania to 'cure' their ballot and fix some mistakes in order to have it counted. 

Fetterman's campaign manager said the campaign would be reaching out to voters to ensure they know they have this option.  

Last week, the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups were successful in getting Pennsylvania's high court to instruct state election officials not to count ballots that are undated. 

When voters fill out their mail-in ballots they must sign and date the back of the envelope before sending it in. 

Both Allegheny County and Philadelphia County have publicly released a list of voters' names whose ballots have been received but may not be counted due to this court requirement. 

Election officials have advised these voters to come to the county election offices to cure their ballot, request a new mail-in ballot or vote by provisional ballot on election day to fix these mistakes. 

In Latrobe, Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump already began stoking fears that the election would once be 'stolen' from Oz and GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, who has been behind in the polls for months. 

Trump expressed in Iowa on Thursday that all voting should be done in-person, on Election Day using paper ballots - the only way to guarantee there would be no fraud. 

After Fetterman's rocky debate performance, Pennsylvania's polls have narrowed further, with Oz taking a .1 percent lead in the Real Clear Politics polling average in the last four days. 

This makes the race a true toss-up, as droves of Pennsylvanians votes had already been cast by the time Fetterman and Oz met on the debate stage.