Jackson Free Press

On Thursday, July 24, the Supreme Court of Mississippi denied to rehear Sen. Chris McDaniel's request to view poll books without voters' personal information redacted.

“We find that the motion is not well taken and should be denied,” the order stated.

McDaniel wanted full access to information included in poll books to determine the validity of votes counted in the run off against U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in Harrison County. The county would only make the poll books available if the McDaniel campaign would pay the administrative fees associated with redacting information—such as voters' social security number, telephone numbers and date of birth—from the records.

The McDaniel campaign tried to use Mississippi Code section 23-15-19 to make the claim that poll books are included in the materials necessary to confirm the legality of the votes in an election. Harrison County Circuit Clerk, Gayle Parker, and the Mississippi Attorney General, Jim Hood, responded that the section McDaniel cites does not include poll books.

The Mississippi Supreme Court agreed on July 17, writing, “After due consideration, we can discern no legal requirement that poll books be included in the contents of ballot boxes.”

But today’s court decision was not uncontested. Justices Michael Randolph, James W. Kitchens and David Chandler made a statement that McDaniel should be granted a Rule 33 hearing.

“Assuring the integrity of the electoral process is a matter of the highest priority and implicates the fundamental rights of all Mississippians,” the statement said.

McDaniel's lawyers said last week that a formal challenge to the results of the senatorial election will be made by tomorrow, claiming that a large number of abnormalities compromised the vote count.