Chris McDaniel’s legal team has filed its response to Thad Cochran’s motion to dismiss McDaniel’s lawsuit to overturn his GOP runoff loss to Cochran. Cochran lawyers last week filed a motion to dismiss McDaniel’s lawsuit, saying it was filed too late. They say a 1959 state Supreme Court ruling requires a candidate contesting a statewide primary file its complaint with the state Republican Party within 20 days of the election. McDaniel filed his challenge of the June 24th primary on Aug. 4. McDaniel’s team in its motion filed today argues that there is no deadline to file a challenge in a statewide primary, and that the 1959 decision applied to old election laws, which have since been updated.
Cochran’s team argues that the Legislature updating the election laws without doing anything to challenge the 1959 ruling bolsters their case, that lawmakers intended for the 20-day deadline to apply to statewide races, not just single county elections.
“Changes in law since 1959 make it clear that the (1959 ruling) does not apply to current Mississippi law,” McDaniel’s response says. It says the Legislature “completely repealed” old election laws in 1986 and passed new ones, making the 1959 high court decision invalid for current law.
McDaniel’s response also says that the state Republican Party missed its own deadline to certify results of the runoff, and that McDaniel’s team wasn’t provided prompt access to voting records in many counties.
Full Article: McDaniel says he didn’t wait too late to file lawsuit.