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Teplitz concedes Pa. Senate race to Republican DiSanto

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Democratic state Senator Rob Teplitz never spoke to John DiSanto on Election Day or the day after, but his campaign made clear Wednesday...

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Democratic state Senator Rob Teplitz never spoke to John DiSanto on Election Day or the day after, but his campaign made clear Wednesday afternoon they were done fighting, 12 hours after initially saying he was not ready to concede.

In a written statement, Teplitz congratulated DiSanto on the Republican's first political win, but also left the door open for an investigation to occur into "irregularities" with votes and vote-counting in Dauphin and Perry Counties.

"I fully support the Pennsylvania Democratic Party's efforts to ensure a full investigation into what happened," Teplitz wrote in a statement which was released around 1 p.m. Wednesday.  "As Americans, we must have confidence in our electoral process, and yesterday's election called into question that confidence."

DiSanto, a Lower Paxton Township businessman running for his first political office, unofficially defeated Teplitz by approximately 4,000 votes.

The Republican took advantage of recently redrawn senate district lines, which took away Democratic strongholds in Steelton and Highspire Boroughs and added all of GOP-heavy Perry County. According to Pennsylvania Department of State election returns, DiSanto won more than 72 percent of the Perry County vote, or 13,698 votes, compared to 5,212 for Teplitz.

"Perry County was very critical in the election, just like the city (of Harrisburg) and Susquehanna Township were critical for him, and he didn't get his job done," DiSanto said of Teplitz on Wednesday, before the Democratic Senator conceded.

Teplitz had a different tune earlier in the morning, when he spoke to supporters after 1 a.m. at his election night watch party in Midtown Harrisburg.

After a long night waiting for election results to come in, Teplitz says first thing Wednesday morning he plans to ask for a full and complete investigation into the Dauphin and Perry County Board of Elections and demand a recount of the votes.

Teplitz demanded answers because of voter irregularities throughout election day including long hours, unprepared staff at several polling locations and unexplained lateness in reporting results.

In addition, the Democratic Senator says there were also calibration problems with voting machines, arguing a recount is necessary to maintain the people's integrity and confidence in our nation's election process.

"The last thing I want to do is be viewed as a sore loser," Teplitz said at his party Wednesday morning. "If I lost, I'm more than willing to concede, but I have to say I have tremendous lack of confidence after what I saw today."

Officials say on Tuesday they did experience issues with the calibration of some of the voting machines in Perry County, however, they say the problem was fixed and ultimately no votes were affected.

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