Pennsylvania special election too close to call

With 100 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday night, only a few hundred votes separated Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone in the Pennsylvania special election for Congress. Just before midnight, Saccone told his supporters that it’s not over yet. Results showed him down 49.6 percent to 49.8 percent, a difference of around 600 hundred votes. Early Wednesday morning, Lamb took to the stage to declare a win for his campaign. “Well, it took a little longer than we thought, but we did it,” Lamb told his supporters. “You did it!” There are still thousands of absentee ballots to count that well outnumber the vote difference between the two candidates. “We’re ready to ensure that every legal vote is counted,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Matt Gorman said in a statement. “Once they are, we’re confident Rick Saccone will be the newest Republican member of Congress.” A recount could occur if the spread between Saccone and Lamb is still under 0.5 percentage points after including absentee ballots. The winner would finish the rest of this year’s term for Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., who resigned last fall amid sexual misconduct accusations. There’s another election scheduled for November to serve the next full term in Congress. Complicating matters, Pennsylvania redrew its district lines under a court order, so the November election for the same district would include new territory.