In a legal filing on Tuesday, U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick asked the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to take immediate action ordering counties to tally mail-in ballots that lack a handwritten date, but were otherwise verified to have been cast on time.

Down by about 1,000 votes to Dr. Mehmet Oz in the race for the Republican nomination, McCormick’s campaign also asked the Commonwealth Court to issue a similar injunction, warning that without immediate action by the court, “qualified voters will be disenfranchised today” when county boards report unofficial returns to the state without their votes counted.

“These are legitimate votes where the voter didn’t handwrite the date on them, but again, they were time-stamped,” McCormick told The Hugh Hewitt Show on Tuesday morning. “If they were time-stamped, why would anyone want to throw those votes out?”

McCormick said his suit that seeks to compel counties to tally undated mail-in ballots is about counting “legitimate votes.”

As the campaigns battle on the margins of a Senate race that’s all but certain to head to an automatic recount, Mr. McCormick asked the Commonwealth Court on Monday to compel counties to follow a brand-new federal appeals court decision and count the mail-ins that are missing handwritten dates on their return envelopes.

The request for emergency relief — and the Supreme Court push — adds a new layer of urgency. McCormick’s camp told the Commonwealth Court that “likely thousands of voters will be unlawfully disenfranchised on account of an immaterial technical error” if its judges don’t jump in.

To the state Supreme Court, his lawyers wrote, “All valid votes should be counted. Period.”

The state has not said how many of these ballots exist across Pennsylvania, but in Allegheny County — the county with the most registered Republicans in Pennsylvania — there are 218. Of those 218, though, just 36 are Republican ballots applicable to the Senate race.

In guidance sent to counties Tuesday morning, the state advised officials to segregate the undated ballots, tabulate them separately and wait for further direction, pending litigation.

Allegheny County’s election return board reconvened Tuesday in a warehouse on the North Side, where they’ll review provisional ballots alongside authorized representatives from both Oz and McCormick’s campaigns.

McCormick, on Hewitt’s radio show, said the race will “certainly go to a recount.”

He’s most likely right: Oz’s lead is at a margin of 0.07%, well within the 0.5% margin for an automatic recount.

The state did not respond to a Post-Gazette request for a breakdown of remaining ballots, but it would be difficult for Mr. Oz to increase his lead by thousands with provisional ballots and military and overseas ballots alone.

The state is required to order a recount, if applicable, by Thursday at 5 p.m.