Pa. Superior Court race too close to call

Votes have yet to be reported in Philadelphia and precincts in six counties.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- The last of three open seats on the state Superior Court remained unfilled Wednesday, the day after the election, because the results were too close to call.
Returns from 99 percent of the state's precincts showed Republican Susan P. Gantman with 1,121,529 votes and Democrat John J. Driscoll with 1,119,319 votes.
Two Democratic candidates -- Philadelphia Municipal Judge Seamus P. McCaffery, 53, and Northampton County Judge Jack A. Panella, 48 -- won two of the Superior Court seats because they were clearly the top vote-getters out of the field of six candidates who competed in Tuesday's election.
But the outcome of the Gantman-Driscoll contest for the third seat could remain in question for weeks.
The gap of barely 2,000 votes that separated the two candidates could be turned upside down by votes that had yet to be reported from heavily Democratic Philadelphia, as well as from precincts in six Republican-leaning counties.
Absentee ballots cast before the election also could be an important wild card in Pennsylvania's decentralized election system.
Could take weeks
Some counties, such as Dauphin, counted their absentee ballots Tuesday and added the totals to the ballots cast on Election Day. Others, such as Philadelphia, only began counting their absentee ballots Wednesday. The results do not have to be certified and presented to state officials for weeks.
Although the deadline is Nov. 24, that's a "discretionary deadline rather than a mandatory deadline" because of legal challenges and other factors that interfere with the counties' certification, said Monna J. Accurti, head of the State Department's Bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation.
At an unspecified date after all 67 counties have certified their results, Secretary of State Pedro Cortes will certify the statewide results as official, Accurti said.
Driscoll, 61, a Westmoreland County judge, was working out of his kitchen Wednesday after one hour's sleep on election night, trying to get a handle on the final numbers.
"We're still counting votes," he said. "We're certainly not ready to concede."
Gantman, 51, a family-law attorney and former Montgomery County prosecutor, said her family planned to order out for dinner and watch a movie Wednesday night.
"I'm just waiting it out," she said.