A judge presiding over a lawsuit that challenges Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran’s victory in a Republican primary runoff said his intention is to have the case settled in time for the November general election. A hearing was held Wednesday before Special Judge Hollis McGehee, who was appointed to hear the lawsuit filed by Chris McDaniel. McGehee said it was a unique case because there has never been a statewide election challenge. McDaniel claims he lost to incumbent Thad Cochran because of thousands of fraudulent votes and voter irregularities. McDaniel wants to be declared the winner of the Republican primary runoff or have a new election. Certified results of the June 24 runoff show that Cochran, a six-term incumbent, defeated the tea party-backed McDaniel by 7,667 votes.
“When you start looking at the crossover votes in addition to the bad absentee ballots, and then when you apply the law to those bad ballots where they’re comingled, you have to throw out all of those,” said McDaniel’s attorney, Mitch Tyner. “I think when you to take a look at, and you’ve all seen the challenge, there are thousands and thousands that far exceed the margin of victory.”
During Wednesday’s hearing, Tyner asked McGehee to block the secretary of state from printing the ballots for the Nov. 4 general election, but McGehee said no.
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