Hearing set in True the vote lawsuit
A hearing is set for Thursday in the Texas-based group True the Vote and 22 Mississippians federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, the state Republican Party and election commission in nine counties.
True the Vote claims it was denied access to voting records in Copiah, Hinds, Jefferson Davis, Lauderdale, Leake, Madison, Rankin, Simpson and Yazoo counties. The group also claims records have been destroyed or tampered with.
True the Vote is looking for people who voted in the June 3 Democratic primary and then illegally crossed over to vote in the June 24 Republican runoff between U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran and challenger Chris McDaniel. Many of the 22 residents who joined the lawsuit are vocal McDaniel supporters.
The group originally filed suit in Oxford in the Northern District U.S. District Court against Hosemann and the Republican Party, but it was moved to the Southern District after U.S. District Judge Mike Mills questioned why it was filed in the Northern District and issued a show cause order for True the Vote to explain why it shouldn't be transferred to the Jackson area.
Mills said the defendants, majority of the witnesses and evidence were from the Jackson area. True the Vote refilled the case in Jackson and added the nine election commissions.
True the Vote said in the lawsuit that tea party supporter and Harrison County election worker Phillip Harding, who swore he had seen an unopened stack of provisional ballots left in a supply bin on July 1 at the Harrison County Election Commission. Harding also said he found absentee ballot applications and envelopes improperly thrown away.
The group also cited a Noxubee County volunteer who claimed to have found one illegal crossover voter in the east Mississippi county.
After the case was moved to Jackson, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate removed himself from hearing the petition for an injunction. Wingate said he has known Cochran for more than 30 years and it was Cochran who recommended that President Ronald Reagan appoint him the bench in 1984.
Chief U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. ordered the case referred to 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Carl Stewart for assignment.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas of Texas has been appointed to preside over the case. She set the evidentiary hearing for 9 a.m. Thursday in Jackson.
Hosemann has said his office has nothing to do with poll books and should be dismissed from the lawsuit.
Contact Jimmie E. Gates at jgates@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7212. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.