Court rejects McDaniel's request for rehearing

The state Supreme Court on Thursday denied Chris McDaniel's request for a rehearing of its earlier rejection of his request for access to poll books without voters' personal information blacked out.

The nine-member court issued a brief order denying the request. But Justices Michael Randolph, James W. Kitchens and David Chandler attached a statement that they would support McDaniel's motion for a hearing because "assuring the integrity of the electoral process is a matter of the highest priority." Justices Jess Dickenson and Randy Pierce did not participate.

McDaniel has been gathering information for a legal challenge of his June 24 Republican runoff loss to incumbent U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran.

McDaniel had asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider is rejection of his request for access to poll books without voters' birthdates blacked out, in part to avoid the expense of paying to have the records redacted.

McDaniel lawyers say they need to see birthdates in poll books to identify voters with the same or similar names, and the cost of redacting the records is prohibitive and unjust. But the court had ruled that poll books are public records maintained by circuit clerks and therefore subject to the state Public Records Act, which requires redaction of personal information such as date of birth before being made public.

McDaniel has claimed the election was "stolen" through illegal voting, but he has not provided evidence or submitted a legal challenge. His lawyers recently said a challenge would be filed within 10 days, which would be by Friday. A challenge would begin with the state Republican Party executive committee, then go to circuit court and most likely the state Supreme Court.