Hinds County Republican Party chairman Pete Perry said Friday morning that examples of voter fraud cited by the tea party and Chris McDaniel’s campaign are simple clerical errors that were fixed. Since Tuesday’s runoff, Hinds County has been the epicenter of voter fraud allegations leveled by McDaniel and his supporters. Thursday night, McDaniel himself told a national television show that a review of some of the poll books from Hinds County turned up more than 1,000 instances where Democrats had voted in that party’s primary June 3 and illegally crossed over to vote in the GOP runoff Tuesday. Poll workers were trained extensively to prevent such crossover voting, Perry said. Hinds County’s Republican and Democratic parties switched poll books so poll workers could cross-reference voters to ensure they did not vote in the Democratic primary June 3 before giving them GOP ballots Tuesday.
“Instead of making wild accusations, which stir up social media with cries of fraud and corruption, it would be much better for all involved — the voters, the candidates, the 500 poll workers in Hinds County — if we let facts enter into the conversation,” Perry said. “I’m sure there were mistakes made by poll workers, but that’s not illegal voting.”
Perry used as an example a sheet from the Democratic poll book in precinct 14 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. Poll workers mistakenly marked the June 3 column on June 24, Perry said.
Sen. Thad Cochran held a roughly 6,700-vote lead after Tuesday’s runoff. McDaniel’s campaign and its supporters have said since that Democrats illegally voted to give Cochran that lead.
Full Article: Perry: Mistakes were made, but no voter fraud found.