The answer will be in MS Superior Local Court Rules. But a federal injunctive order should proceed as if the dates of local rules were reset to the date of the federal order. So whether MS freezes or allows further gathering is moot.
Not if the plaintiff gets no federal order. And anyway, I think it's an interesting question of Mississippi law. It a candidate who contests the results of an election stuck with the evidence he's gathered as of the date of the challenge being filed? Is his opponent likewise "frozen" in gathering evidence?
If the Mississippi Supreme Court wants to get all literal, that 12 day window for viewing the contents of the ballot box is only for viewing the contents of the ballot box, and says nothing about a deadline for mounting a challenge based on viewing poll books.
Also, by Mississippi law, "There shall be also inclosed in said [ballot] box the tally list, the receipt booklet containing the signed names of the voters who voted; and the number of ballots voted must correspond with the number of names signed in said receipt booklet." Not sure what to make of that, other than there is a source of data, independent of the pollbooks, for who voted in the runoff.
I notice, in the Order, no mention of a distinction between the registration book, and the pollbooks. The Order claims that the pollbooks are "official records of all persons qualified to vote in a particular county." This statement is factually incorrect.
I'd have to read the pleadings set before it to further substantiate my suspicion, but errors of fact, like this one where the court cites a statute (23-15-135. Registrar to keep registration book and pollbooks) then omits referring to a significant part of it (existence of registration books), often portend deliberate intellectual dishonesty.
The pollbook is defined in Mississippi election law. It is not a list of persons qualified to vote in a particular county.
23-15-125. Form of pollbooks. The pollbook of each voting precinct shall designate the voting precinct for which it is to be used, and shall be ruled in appropriate columns, with printed or written headings, as follows: date of registration; voter registration number; name of electors; date of birth; and a number of blank columns for the dates of elections.There is also a massive weasel wording in the Order, "access to information contained in poll books is governed by 23-15-165. 23-15-165 relates to access to the registration book.
23-15-165. Implementation of centralized database of registered votersGranted, pollbooks and registration books contain much of the same information, but the function of a pollbook includes creating a traceable record of the conduct of a given election. The registration book does not have this function.
The Order has a typo referring to 23-15-165(a)-(b). That should be 23-15-165(6)(a)-(b)
(6)(a) Social security numbers, telephone numbers and date of birth and age information in statewide, district, county and municipal voter registration files shall be exempt from and shall not be subject to inspection, examination, copying or reproduction under the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983.So, somebody in the state put material in the pollbooks, that is in violation of the law. In particular, the pollbooks include SSN, phone number and age information, and NONE of this is part of the form of pollbook defined in 23-15-125. Why should a candidate bear the cost of the state redacting what it wasn't supposed to put in, in the first place?(b) Copies of statewide, district, county or municipal voter registration files, excluding social security numbers, telephone numbers and date of birth and age information, shall be provided to any person in accordance with the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983 at a cost not to exceed the actual cost of production.
No overarching point to the above, just observations on reading the order and the law.