Posted on 07/02/2014 12:37:07 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
It’s been a week since Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) won the Mississippi Republican primary, but not if you ask Chris McDaniel.
The failed Senate challenger hasn’t conceded to the six-term incumbent, and shows no signs of doing so anytime soon. Instead, the state senator is looking into legal routes to challenge the 6,693-vote margin he says was orchestrated through, at best, illegitimate voter targeting, and at worst through illegal vote-buying.
Mississippi has no statute to force a recount, so McDaniel’s only recourse to challenge the outcome of an election that conservatives have widely panned is through legal means. He and his supporters remain skeptical of the results because Cochran, who finished second in the primary, reached out to African-American voters to boost him in the runoff three weeks later.
McDaniel is still in campaign mode, convinced he can overturn the deficit.
His campaign has more than 150 staff and volunteers fanned out across the state, comparing poll books from the June 3 Democratic primary to those from the June 24 GOP runoff to see if any voters showed up in both elections.
Those duplicates would be thrown out under Mississippi election law, which bars participation in one party's primary and then another party's runoff. The state doesn’t register voters by party, however, and has an open primary system, which allows those who may consider themselves Democrats but didn’t vote in the Democratic primary to vote in the GOP runoff.
That bloc was key to Cochran’s runoff win. His campaign and allies made no secret of aggressively courting African-American Democrats to turn out for him on June 24, increasing turnout in a number of heavily black counties and expanding his win margin in those areas.
McDaniel spokesman Noel Fritsch said that as of Tuesday afternoon the campaign had found more than 3,300 ineligible crossover votes, and counting.
“We’ve examined the poll books in fewer than half the counties in Mississippi,” he said.
The McDaniel campaign has volunteers tackling 75 of the state’s 82 counties, Fritsch said, but they haven’t had access to every poll book because some of the county clerks have been more cooperative than others. He said all of the books would be accessible after the results are certified with the state Republican executive committee.
But Fritsch said the campaign is encouraged by the large number of votes they have yet to pore over.
“Notably, it’s the Delta that constitutes the vast majority that we have not gotten into. So we certainly anticipate we’re going to find many more irregularities in the Delta. And there are 18-19,000 absentee ballots, so anticipate finding a large number of irregularities there,” he said of the majority black areas.
If McDaniel builds a credible case, the campaign first has to file a challenge with the Republican executive committee, and then 12 days after that he can take his case to the courts.
At least one group is already moving forward with legal action. Conservative election-monitoring group True the Vote filed suit against the Mississippi secretary of State and the Mississippi Republican Party on Tuesday, calling for immediate access to unredacted election records before the result of the election is officially certified by the state party.
“All we are asking is that the MS State Republican Party follow the law; allow their designated county representatives to inspect the poll books and ballots, give them the review time they are permitted by law, and allow them to uphold their responsibility to MS voters,” True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht said in a statement.
“True the Vote has been inundated with reports from voters across Mississippi who are outraged to see the integrity of this election being undermined so that politicos can get back to business as usual. Enough is enough,” she continued.
Election law expert Rick Hasen said McDaniel and his allies have a tough case to prove, however.
“To even have a plausible claim they’re going to have to get over 6,000 illegitimate votes. There are lots of people who have similar names,” said Hasen. “It all depends on what evidence they come forward with. Right now it’s a lot of talk. They need to publicly show their evidence, either to a court or release it publicly.”
McDaniel’s continued rabble-rousing runs the risk of further dividing an already splintered Republican Party as it gears up for Cochran’s general election fight. Though he’s heavily favored to defeat Democrat Travis Childers, a number of prominent Mississippi Republicans, including state GOP Chairman Joe Nosef and Sen. Roger Wicker (R), expressed concerns over the party’s ability to unify before the runoff came to a close.
Cochran’s team dismissed such concerns, with strategist Stuart Stevens saying they’re not looking back.
“We have moved onto the general election. The primary is over. We have [moved on], and so has the public,” Stevens told The Hill.
Stevens suggested McDaniel was keeping the issue alive because it’s a solid moneymaker for the candidate and he's got significant campaign debt — $100,100 at the beginning of June — to pay off.
Indeed, money may be one roadblock to a successful legal challenge. The McDaniel campaign has set up a legal defense fund and is working to fill it, Fritsch said. But legal expert Hasen said that money and time is of the essence in orchestrating a successful challenge.
“These things are very expensive, and of course time works against the challenger. The longer you go away from the election, the less likely the court feels it can overturn the election results, when they’re already in general election mode,” he said.
While crossover votes are currently at the center of McDaniel’s hopes for challenging the results, some conservatives are crying foul over a report out this week that alleges the Cochran campaign engaged in an illegal vote-buying scheme that may have delivered thousands of black Democrats to the polls in exchange for money.
A conservative blogger posted an interview online Monday night with a black self-proclaimed minister in Mississippi who said he had, in fact, been given money to pay to black Democrats in exchange for their votes in the runoff. But that minister was paid for his interview, raising questions about the legitimacy of his claims.
Conservatives seized on the report, however, with FreedomWorks calling on the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate the claims.
Other conservative groups, however, have abandoned McDaniel. The Club for Growth, initially an enthusiastic supporter of the candidate, congratulated Cochran on his win and has remained mum on McDaniel’s refusal to concede.
And Hasen said claims like the vote-buying allegations could ultimately hurt McDaniel’s cause.
“The campaign doesn’t do itself any favors when it lets unsubstantiated rumors mix with plausible legal theories,” he said.
—This piece was updated at 10 p.m. to reflect the identity of the man alleging vote-buying practices.
Club for Growth GOPe
Looks like a smack down for Cochran. The one picture of a voter log made the process seem straight forward. ID’s are tabulated during voting. If an ID shows up twice, both in the Democrat and the later Republican primary, the latter vote is bogus.
Here’s the comment I posted over there:
Yet another article about this race that omits any mention of the racist, fear mongering rhetoric that was used by Cochran’s campaign. Stop covering up for him, MSM. And others (I’m look at you, Rand Paul) certainly need to stop congratulating him for “reaching out”.
His campaign called the voters of his own party racists, why would ANYONE vote for him in November?
It’s the arrogance of the racist accusations that’s galling here. Particularly when the left wing loons and the media scream racism all the time without a shred of evidence, but the low info types believe it, and the Republican Party never fights back — and now this...
At least one talk host I’ve listened to lately thinks McDaniel could win as an independent.
Maybe could win, but can't run - I think that violates Miss.'s "Sore Loser" law, no?
Even at 10 PM last night The Hill was still calling Rev, Fielder’s charges (by quoting an ‘election law expert’) as “unsubstantiated rumors.” Clearly this expert has no way of saying this but it “fit” what The Hill wanted to say. McDaniel is halfway there already and he hasn’t gone into the fattest part of the crime. The NAACP chief in Mississippi went to prison for VOTER FRAUD just three years ago. Mississippi Blacks have sold their votes for the price of two packs of cigarettes and have spit on the graves of the Civil Rights who gave their lives for their right to vote.
Conservative candidates need to get use to fighting back, there will be intensive fraud going forward. Typically in the past candidates would just fold, dems never fold.
Candidates need to get prepared to fight now, not after the fact, so they can respond quickly with a plan of action.
If you want to get your stuff back from a thief, catch him the act.
Not to me, it's the voter fraud that galls me. It's so common anymore we expect it and readily accept it once our candidate folds. We can't have a free country if our elections are manipulated, can't happen.
If not McDaniel then somebody else in the same camp, it sounds like there are enough people bent out of shape enough at this one that an independent could win.
The McDaniel campaign is not the source of the allegations.
This line is another sliming of the McDaniel campaign.
AND THAT DOESNT even touch the 18-19,000 absentee ballots whom came from 'problematic' districts and are suspected of fraud.
The problem is that the very people McDaniel has to take his case to are the ones who rigged the election to begin with. Or hold their office because of those people. The deck is very much stacked against him.
At least one talk host I’ve listened to lately thinks
McDaniel could win as an independent.
****************
Did that talk host give a means by which McDaniel can run as an independent
under current Mississippi law and code? If so could you give us the info?
The deck is very much stacked against him.
**************
That maybe true in much of the arena but this will have to untimately be brought into
the court system and I believe that system may be more apt to produce the truth and justice.
AND THAT DOESNT even touch the 18-19,000 absentee ballots whom came from ‘problematic’ districts and are suspected of fraud.
+++++
Do we have any reason to believe that these are predominantly Dem votes? Remember, the Dem vote was crucial to the election outcome but was actually a small percentage of the overall votes.
So there is a big difference in the “value” of the absentee ballots between a mix based on the overall vote which is predominantly GOP versus one where the Cochran Team stuffed the ballot box with Dem votes many of which are highly likely to be illegal.
Anyone with some solid info on the expected makeup of the absentee ballots should post what they know.
McDaniel should be supported by all Tea Party People across the nation. Looks like its time for a reform party—or at least a movement to purge corruption!
One of the biggest areas of fraud when it comes to absentee voting is where a campaign’s agents obtain and vote “for” the supposed “voter”. Ferreting out this type of fraud takes close review of all relevant documentation and signature verification, etc. The Mississippi authorities are refusing the needed access to all this material to True-The-Vote. They are CLEARLY trying to run out the clock before folks can start reviewing this fraud rich source.
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