McDaniel challenging GOP primary loss to Cochran

Chris McDaniel on Monday filed his long-awaited challenge of the June 24 GOP primary for U.S. Senate, saying he's found enough illegal and questionable votes that the state Republican Party should declare him the winner.

McDaniel's challenge doesn't appear to contain any new smoking guns but is more of a kitchen-sink approach, seeking to show a "pattern of conduct" of illegal and questionable voting through which McDaniel claims the primary was stolen from him. The complaint is a thick, three-ring binder that includes media reports of previous allegations about Cochran and his supporters, affidavits from McDaniel volunteers who scoured voting records, people's social media posts and polling of voters after the primary.

"Justice has no timetable," McDaniel said to a crowd of media and supporters before his lawyers presented binders to media. "They asked me to put up or shut up. Here we are with the evidence."

McDaniel, a state senator from Ellisville with tea party backing, is contesting his loss in the runoff by 7,667 votes to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. McDaniel claims he's found more than 15,000 illegal, improper or questionable votes.

Mark Garriga, a lawyer for Cochran, said Monday afternoon that he hadn't received a copy of McDaniel's complaint but that it "sounds like more of the same … baseless allegations."

"This has been one of the most thoroughly reviewed, examined statewide elections in history," Garriga said. "In the past, (McDaniel) has made tons of baseless allegations, about Cochran campaign staffers, circuit clerks, volunteer poll workers."

McDaniel filed his challenge with the state Republican Party on Monday, a first legal step. Assuming the party's decision is challenged, or if it fails to make one, the case would next head to a circuit court, with the state Supreme Court appointing a special judge to hear the case.

In his complaint, McDaniel claims that shortly after the runoff "evidence came to light that not only was the Cochran campaign soliciting Democratic votes, but specific Cochran campaign personnel were named as participating in a criminal vote-buying scheme."

The Cochran campaign has called allegations of vote buying or other fraud "baseless" and said the number of questionable votes is small — around 1,000 — and within normal percentages of human error for a primary with nearly 400,000 votes cast.

McDaniel's complaint includes a recording of Meridian resident Stevie Fielder claiming he helped the Cochran campaign buy votes. Fielder, who was paid by an online news outlet for his information, has since recanted most of his story, and state Attorney General Jim Hood said last week that his office investigated and determined Fielder was paid $2,000 to lie about vote buying.

McDaniel's complaint also includes a recording of a Republican poll worker in Marshall County claiming she heard voters leaving her precinct talking about how they would use vouchers they were given for voting.

Mississippi has open primaries and does not require party registration by voters. But there is a state law — which has been deemed unenforceable — that says someone should not vote in a primary unless they intend to support that party's nominee in a general election. McDaniel's complaint cites a poll of 433 Democrats who voted in the June 24 GOP primary that found 71 percent said they didn't intend to support the Republican nominee in November. The complaint also notes that "social media sites were active" after the runoff with Democrats saying they voted for Cochran in the primary but would not in the general.

"Polling after the election, to me, speaks volumes about the seriousness of what they are doing," Garriga said. "It's been six weeks. I don't know that any campaign has ever waited this long to file a contest or relied on post-election polling to try to make their case. … Putting people's Facebook posts and things in their complaints tells me they are not serious."

McDaniel's complaint says Cochran caused serious harm to the state primary process by "hustling Democrat voters into the Republican primary through race-baiting scare tactics."

McDaniel's filing itemizes, by county, complaints in affidavits from McDaniel volunteers of "missing chain of custody" for precinct ballot boxes, "invalid documentation" and other problems with nearly 2,300 absentee ballots, and about 3,500 "illegal crossover" votes. The complaint names many of the alleged crossover voters.

While primaries are open, people who voted in one party's primary are supposed to be prohibited from crossing over and voting in another party's runoff. The Cochran campaign says there was only a small number of potential crossover votes. Garriga said state law doesn't appear to prohibit such crossover voting. The prohibition has been based on attorney general opinions. Cochran's campaign, which also has combed through voting records for the last six weeks, disputes McDaniel's vote findings. McDaniel's challenge of a statewide vote is unprecedented, at least in recent history.

State GOP Chairman Joe Nosef said Monday that for the initial challenge filing with the party, he will act essentially as a judge and the 50 or so members of the party executive committee as a jury. But, Nosef said, rules and procedures are somewhat unclear.

Nosef said his first steps will be to appoint four members of the executive committee to serve as an advisory board, then come up with a process on which the McDaniel and Cochran camps can agree.

Nosef noted some lawyers have pointed to a 1959 Mississippi court case, saying it provides a deadline for filing a challenge that already would have passed weeks ago. But McDaniel's lawyers dispute this. Once the party makes a decision on the case, or if it decides not to make a decision, McDaniel must appeal to a state circuit court in any county where he questions the results. The state Supreme Court would appoint a special judge to hear the case. A general election challenge would go before a jury, but a primary challenge is decided by a judge.

McDaniel is calling for the state GOP executive committee to have a public hearing on Aug. 12 and allow each side to present its case, then have the committee pick a nominee by secret ballot.

McDaniel attorney Mitch Tyner, to cheers from McDaniel supporters outside his Jackson office on Tuesday, declared, "Chris McDaniel clearly, clearly won the Republican vote."

"That's what the mathematics show," Tyner said.

Garriga marveled that the complaint includes post-election polling and people's social media posts, and said McDaniel has been running a "post-election campaign, but an election challenge is run on rules of evidence in a court of law."