declined to endorse a candidate in this year\u2019s Senate primary<\/a>, which rates as one of the most important contests in the country. The party endorsement requires two-thirds of the votes of committee members, and Rep. Conor Lamb just fell short of that, receiving 61 percent on a second ballot, according to the figures released Saturday.<\/p>\nThe race for the Senate in Pennsylvania could determine which party controls the chamber, and the Democratic primary \u2014 which features a power struggle between the party\u2019s progressive and centrist wings \u2014 is being closely watched.<\/p>\n
The state party is conducting an audit of the endorsement vote, and the official said it will release the properly tabulated results shortly.<\/p>\n
It was announced at the state party\u2019s meeting Saturday that Lt. Gov. John Fetterman came in second place, and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta finished third, while Val Arkoosh, a Montgomery County commissioner, did not receive the 15 percent of votes necessary to make it onto the second ballot.<\/p>\n
The state party official said that with all the votes properly tabulated, Lamb still did not receive the endorsement and the candidates finished in the same order. Arkoosh also did not receive the votes needed to advance beyond the first ballot, the person said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA minor glitch in our system meant that some votes were recorded, but did not make it into the final tally at the meeting. We are conducting a full audit of the system,\u201d Brendan Welch, communications director for the state party, said in a statement to POLITICO. \u201cWhat we can say for certain is that this error did not impact any of the endorsement decisions, nor did it change any of the candidates\u2019 placements in the final vote tally for any round of balloting, and we do have a record of every credentialed member\u2019s vote. We will report full results as soon as the audit is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state party official said they believed \u201cmore than five\u201d votes had not been tabulated. Though they did not provide a specific number, they said it would not be enough for Lamb to win the endorsement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe percentages are pretty identical,\u201d the person said. \u201cIt may be Conor Lamb is at 62 percent \u2026 but he can\u2019t get to 67 percent, which is the threshold.\u201d<\/p>\n
A source on Lamb\u2019s campaign said it noticed this weekend that one of his supporters\u2019 votes had not been tabulated and contacted the state party about the irregularity. The person added that the campaign is not questioning the results.<\/p>\n
Lamb campaign manager Abby Nassif-Murphy said that the \u201cparty has assured us that they have a record of every vote cast and that every vote was counted.\u201d<\/p>\n
State committee members were permitted to vote in person or virtually at Saturday\u2019s meeting, the first hybrid meeting held by the party for an endorsement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to do a hybrid meeting in the midst of the pandemic,\u201d the state party official said. \u201cAnd given that it was a high percentage of accuracy, I think we did pretty good. I think our tech people will get better as we go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Welch added that \u201cthis was the PA Democratic Party\u2019s first time conducting a hybrid endorsement vote \u2014 credentialed members were all emailed a link to a Google form that would record their vote, and votes were tabulated in real-time. This was done to accommodate our State Committee members who could not travel to Harrisburg for the in-person vote due to COVID-19 safety concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
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