Local GOPer Challenges McDaniel: Only 300 Questionable Votes In Hinds County

Hinds County Republican Party chairman Pete Perry holds an example of a sheet from the Democratic poll book in Hinds County that showed three voters as having voted in the Democratic primary June 3, but that notation... Hinds County Republican Party chairman Pete Perry holds an example of a sheet from the Democratic poll book in Hinds County that showed three voters as having voted in the Democratic primary June 3, but that notation being crossed out and the correct mark being made in the June 24 column, during a news conference at the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Miss., Friday, June 27, 2014. Perry said claims of voter fraud cited by the tea party and state Sen. Chris McDaniel's campaign for the Mississippi GOP U.S. Senate nomination are simple clerical errors that were fixed. McDaniel lost to the incumbent U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) MORE LESS
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Only 300 to 350 questionable votes were found in Hinds County for the runoff election between Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R), according to the chairman of the Hinds County Republican Party in Mississippi, Pete Perry.

Perry (pictured) made the comments at a press conference on Tuesday, a day before McDaniel is set to hold his own press conference where he will discuss his claim that there are 8,300 “questionable ballots” in the runoff election.

McDaniel and his supporters have been poring over election records in the hopes of proving McDaniel’s claim that Cochran won the runoff only through voter fraud and Democratic votes.

McDaniel’s claim that in Hinds County there are 1,500 or more votes that were cast illegally is wrong and has been “debunked,” Perry said according to the Clarion Ledger.

“I guess inflation occurs in campaigns with numbers just as it does with egos,” Perry said at the press conference.

Perry went on to say that most of the questionable votes he found would probably fall under the category of “crossover” votes — a vote cast by someone who voted in the Democratic primary and the Republican runoff. It is illegal to vote in one primary and then the runoff of the opposing primary in Mississippi but if, say, a Democrat did not vote in the Democratic primary but did vote in the Republican runoff that is legal.

McDaniel has accused Perry of asking Democrats to “break the law” by accepting crossover votes in the runoff. Perry has denied that accusation, saying it’s “baseless.”

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