Supporters of state Senator Chris McDaniel are conducting their own investigation into whether there were voting irregularities in Tuesday's Republican Runoff. Volunteers believe they have found a large number of inconsistencies in this week's election results.
"It shows both these people voted written down in red, and it shows both voters written down in black on here, I mean which book is the right book?"
In the basement of the Hinds County Courthouse Bill Billingsley of Madison spent hours on Thursday, combing through dozens of election precinct books looking for what the McDaniel campaign has called "voting irregularities."
"This is the Democrat poll book, and it shows all the people that voted in the Democrat Primary on June 3." says Billingsley. "Now, if it shows that you voted on June 24, you weren't supposed to do that. That's why we're looking through these books. To find out all the ones that voted when they shouldn't have."
By looking over the poll books, Tea Party officials believe they have found evidence of at least eight hundred of those irregularities. Luara Van Overshealde is the Chair of the Mississippi Tea Party. She says this is just the beginning of their investigation.
"We're not yet done." Van Overshcelde says. "We're not yet close to finishing here. This is a great cause for concern, so we sill continue to investigate every county we can. We anticipate finding many more illegal votes in Hinds County."
However, Hinds County Republican Party Chairman Pete Perry believes the Tea Party's number is inflated. He says a lot of those inconsistencies were honest mistakes committed poll workers.
"The poll workers marked in the wrong columns." says Perry. "They know that there are errors that happened that day, and the poll workers out there corrected it. They're well aware of it. They're just trying to pump up their numbers to make it better then it really is. I don't mind what they're doing. I think it's fine for them to make the examination. I think it's fine for them to look for errors, but I think it's bogus for them to give number that they know are bogus."
In a statement issued late yesterday afternoon, the McDaniel campaign asked the Republican Party to urge all county circuit clerks to cooperate with campaign volunteers.
