Hinds County GOP Chairman Pete Perry on Tuesday said only 300 to 350 questionable votes were found as the Chris McDaniel and Thad Cochran campaigns scoured records of more than 25,000 votes cast in the county in their primary runoff. Perry said he believes McDaniel’s claims of 1,500 or more potentially illegal votes — and voter fraud — in Hinds County has been “debunked.” “I guess inflation occurs in campaigns with numbers just as it does with egos,” Perry said at a press conference at the county courthouse Tuesday. McDaniel and his campaign have claimed there were widespread irregularities and voter fraud in Hinds County and statewide. They appear to be working toward a legal challenge of the runoff. Six-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Cochran defeated McDaniel in the runoff by 7,667 votes, winning 51 percent of more than 382,000 votes statewide.
McDaniel on Friday announced his campaign has found at least 8,300 “questionable ballots cast” and said he will hold a press conference Wednesday in Jackson “to discuss evidence we have documented and our next steps.”
The McDaniel campaign has also questioned Perry’s oversight of the primary as chairman, noting his consulting company was paid about $60,000 by a pro-Cochran PAC. Perry says his company paid people for get out the vote work for the PAC, but did not make any profit, and probably worked at a loss. He said he is not prohibited as party chairman from such work and that McDaniel supporters also helped run the party primary.
Full Article: Perry: Hinds voting ‘debunked’, McDaniel set to talk Wed.