Update: JJ obtained a copy of the peititon to challenge the results. It is posted below.
The Mississippi Pep blog reported the following statement by Senator Melanie Sojourner:
From the beginning, Senator Sojourner has taken very seriously the allegations of criminal election fraud in District 37. She and many volunteers and supporters have worked hard to inspect the ballots in Franklin and Adams County over the past few weeks to find the truth. As a result, Senator Sojourner officially filed with the Mississippi Senate on Wednesday what can only be described as a very credible and compelling list of infractions in the form of an election challenge. We believe this clearly shows that had it not been for criminal voter fraud Senator Sojourner would have been re-elected as Senator for District 37. Rest of post.
The Republican Senator Sojourner lost by 64 votes to former Democratic Senator Bob Dearing. She ousted him in the 2011 election. She charged in her petition that she lost due to criminal fraud. A poll watcher and former bailiff (for August primary) filed "criminal charges against four poll workers and an election commissioner who worked the Bude Precinct" during the November 3 election. She lost the precinct by 242 votes. She claims approximately 90 "improper and illegal actions" took place at that precinct. Some of those actions were:
*Illegally offering voter assistance to those who didn't request it or weren't disabled.
*poll workers illegally attempting to "aid or influence voters"
*poll workers "illegally violating the secrecy of the ballot"
*poll workers illegally entering the polling booth alone with voters
She cites O'Neal v. Simpson in arguing that such illegal assistance can render votes invalid. Ms. Sojourner also claims that one Anita Leonard witnesses and documented 30 illegal acts. They included poll workers not checking voter ID or not determining if voters were indeed qualified to vote at that precinct.
The good Senator also claimed voting irregularities took place in Adams County. She claimed that the absentee and affidavit ballots were not kept in a locked and sealed election box but "instead in a cardboard box which was sitting on the floor in the election commissioner's office." She alleges the "failure to secure" these ballots violated the law. She states that 234 of the 268 accepted absentee ballots did not have the witness signature written across the envelope flap as mandated by statute. The 234 ballots were allegedly commingled with the other ballots, thus tainting the entire group of Adams County absentee ballots. Senator Sojourner lost the absentee ballots in Adams County by a margin of 134 votes.
The petition also charges that several Adams County precinct ballot bags were either missing locks and seals or had zippers that could bypas the seal. There are other allegations that are stated in the petition posted below.
Ms. Sojourner asked the Mississippi Senate to investigate the election and reconsider its certification. She said the Senate should invalidate the illegal votes and declare her to be the winner.
42 comments:
And why should she NOT file a challenge. Now lets read about sixteen posts from McDaniel bashers, most from the same asshat. Our government revolves, in part, around fair and honest elections.
Please let Tyner be her lawyer.
Glad to see that at least the Senator has learned that legal deadlines have meanings and must be followed, even for her. After last year's debacle with boyfriend and candidate, McDaniel - and her own fiasco with finance reports - she evidently decided when it was her b##ls in the fire she would file her contest within the time limit allowed.
Too bad she misses on the specifics of her complaint - kinda like with Chrissie, she has inflated the numbers far from their effect on the election. But - a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do, and pigs gotta fly - so we can all sit back and watch this train wreck unfold over the next several weeks.
The interesting aspect of all this will be the simple fact that Tate Reeves is incapable of treating Sojourner fairly.
According to Senator Sojourner, all other politicians have lost their moral compass. Thank goodness we have her to lead us to the light.
I can see the GOP legislators over-riding a straw vote, but I can't see them blatantly over-riding the will of the people. If there are irregularities, maybe a re-vote. But they are not going to just hand it to Mel although I'm sure we will hear howling about "true conservatives" when they don't.
CL says she is claiming criminal fraud. Dems must have hid somebody in the courthouse.
Fight Mel Fight! She had served us well, and it doesn't hurt that she is smoking hot.
"Smoking hot"?!?!?
Mel is a loser. Period. Admit defeat and move on.
Surely the Cruz campaign would offer her a job.
I'd like to thank Thad Cochran for his bi-partisan efforts to allow President Obama to jack up the national debt by $578 billion in just three weeks. When Thad said he was going to unabashedly continue his support for debt fueled pork barrel spending he wasn't kidding.
Thanks for keeping your campaign promises Thad. We need more honest politicians such as yourself.
As was predicted in the first post, all subsequent posts are about anything BUT fair and honest elections. Keep up the front, harpies.
Yes, well...let's see the " overwhelming evidence".
I suspect what she hopes is that people will remember the charge and not the result when all is said and done. And, she probably hopes she can get people to " contribute" money to the effort.
The true believers will not notice when no evidence is found amid new sensational journalism efforts design to reinforce their paranoiac ideations.
And, those who are mere dupes won't want to admit their poor judgment so will fall for the notion that conspiracies of Machiavellian proportions are easily executed and as common as pennies. They will choose to think no evidence was found , not because it simply didn't exist, but because the conspirators were so brilliant!
The extremists of both parties today would have been in institutions with supervised medications prior to 1972 and locked in the attic so as not to embarrass the family prior to 1920!
She is Mississippi's version of Sarah Palin. Hated and despised for her common sense approach to government and governing with integrity rather than just funneling taxpayer money to certain well connected cronies. Beef Plant, Kemper plant, Costco and the cellulose to energy boondoggles would not happen if she had a say. That is why the old boy power structure hates her so much.
9:58, Mel is a less hot version of Palin, but she appears to be just as intelligent.
>>>She is Mississippi's version of Sarah Palin.<<<
You got that part right.
The rest not so much.
Were these Republican poll watchers? Conservative Coalition Poll Watchers? Chris McDaniel Party Poll Watchers? The Franklin County (population of about 8,000) Republican Party must be highly organized to provide poll watchers...
Where's the courthouse?
I'm and independent who leans Republican, but I wish that otherwise informed people, from the Franklin County precinct bailiff all the way up to "el Rushbo" would learn that "Democrat" is the noun and "Democratic" is the adjective when referring to the party.
Pretty entertaining article over on Ya'll Politics about this. I have to agree with them, why does she think any of the Republicans, with the exception of McDaniel, help her? She has done nothing but bad mouth them. I also read that Cochran voted to get rid of Obamacare. Wonder how the McGOPer's will spin that into "Cochran votes with Obama 100% of the time" rhetoric?
11:59 - right on. She is an exact duplicate of Sarah Palin - impressed everybody at first, but before long she opened her mouth (for talking purposes.) Then we all learned that the body didn't contain any substance.
Which one am I talking about? Both - Palin and Sojourner. Ready to see both of them go back and sit on the porch and look at Russia, but get out of thinking they were significant.
Cochran voted to allow the funding of Obamacare. Now he votes to get rid of Obamacare knowing that, if passed, it will be vetoed. Without the number of votes to override, Thadbo believes that all will forget about his funding votes. Well, not everyone's memory is as short as his.
Damn 2:40 - thought this post was about Melanie and her contest of her election. Maybe you meant to post your very insightful comments on another post?
Or, are you just admitting that you and the handful of your loony group of McD's are still fighting the last war - and that's all Mel is doing here?
Sojouner's mistake was to not hire Pete Perry to purchase some black Democrat votes. She could have had Pete buy a fairly modest number which would have been just enough to swing the election.
The Possum Caucus is in the house!
Your nomenclature has zero traction. ZILCH.
5:00 - Are you kidding me? The last war? These guys are still fighting the goddamn Civil War.
Bless your heart @ 6:43 PM. Marshall will always be remembered fondly. A niche player, the Guy Hovis of his time.
Are all of you brilliant commentators aware of the criminal charges that took place in this district?
Bwahahahaa good luck with your 'criminal charges'. We've seen how this plays out. She needs to have a 're-vote' or give it up.
Yeah 10:06. Am aware of the 'criminal charges' - based on the affidavit of one individual that 'claims she saw' wrongdoing going on in a precinct, but didn't do anything about it at the time which was her responsibility if she was a poll watcher for Melanie. And check her creds - not the best witness to have in a court.
If Melanie is banking on those charges, she ought to save her money. Oh, forgot. That's what all this is probably about - a fundraising scheme just like Chrissie's last year. She's got the same set of posters making their comments on this site just as before so its all set - just has to convince Tyner to take charge of the case.
lol
Usually the phrase "criminal charges" means an official of the criminal justice system has started the process with some official document. Has that happened "in this district"? What zactly are the "criminal charges" you are claiming have been filed? Or is the Possum Caucus smoking Hopium again?
To Mr. 5:00 ~ You accused 2:40 of being out of order for mentioning Cochran's vote. Actually, had you been paying attention (assuming you can), you'd have known 2:40 was only replying to the post at 1:50 regarding Cochran's voting trickery. Please try to keep up or leave the room umm kay thanks.
While you people are busy falsely accusing two people of being in bed together, you choose to completely overlook the fact that Cochran was the one in bed with his landlord and it was you people who slipped under the sheets with a group of black members of the Democrat Party to keep the old scoundrel in office.
I was waiting for a crybaby to show up. You wanted to go down this path, lets go down this path.
Elections can get dirty and like divorces, they bring out the worst in people. The McDaniel camp pushed the adultery story hard and heavy (no, there is nothing wrong with the earth's gravitational force). One paid staffer would goad me on FB to start reporting on the adultery. Well, I thought the campaigns should be about the issues so I didn't approve the Kay-Thad comments. The McDaniel staffers wouldn't stop egging me on and taunting me about it so I said ok, if you want to do this, that is fine because it goes both ways. That means if I allow sordid comments about Thad, then I allow them about Chris, so I did.
You people are the ones who started this crap, knowing there were heavy and widespread rumors about the other candidate and campaign manager. You want the right to play rough while denying it to everyone else. Well, there are more than a few people, and not just on the thad side, who believed those rumors, including some strong supporters. Moan and bitch all you want but when the shoe is on the other foot, you turn into a crybaby. You don't like it. It is not fair. Tough. You wanted this crap, you got it, so shut up. If I allow these adulterous comments to be made about one side, then I am allowing them about the other. Deal with it.
Where did you get dogged out about it KF?
On Kim Wade's FB page during the campaign. I think it was McCluskey (correct me on spelling). He appeared on McDaniel finance reports. Then a couple of others would chime in.
Interesting. Mr. Cupit can write a seemingly fluent dissertation of his own free will, yet he cannot seem to get a grasp the proper usage of the word(s) democrat/democratic amongst other grammatical errors within the context of the 'exhibit'.
And, Keith Plunkett has the gall to claim the conservatives are under attack. Imagine that. I don't know where this goes, but it smells to high heaven,
Kingfish doesn't seem to know the difference between facts and innuendo. It was a well known FACT that Cochran was living at his paramour's house. It was a well known fact that she accompanied him on senate junkets and signed on as 'wife'. It is a well known fact that the two married two weeks after the wife's death.
What facts did Kingfish have or post that allow him now to suggest adultery by the other candidate?
It's also a well known fact that Kingfish loved all the McDaniel bashing and loves all the Sojourner bashing. We don't expect neutrality by the management of this blog; but, hey, that's nunna my bidness.
@5:59 only old folks, purist Conservative Christians, opprotunists, and political hacks care about it. We know " what's up" and would prefer not to think about it, but you all insist that we must! Mel. and Chris might be gettin it on and Thad married his secretary.
Got it.......can we move on now?
Wow, 5:59, that might even be true.... if I had voted for Cochran.
I never accused anyone of anything. Certain readers did and I made the point that if I was going to allow one side to do it, then I would allow the other side to do it as well.
The problem is there is a certain clique in one campaign that turns on its supporters if they don't agree with them not 100, but 200%. I saw numerous people who were 100% for McDaniel run off by that little group. Have rarely see a campaign turn on itself the way it did.
There were a total of 5,677 votes counted in Adams County. Dearing received 3651 regular ballots and 201 absentee ballots. Sojourner received 1758 regular ballots and 67 absentee ballots.
The Dearing/Sojourner ratio for regular ballots cast was 66.4% to 32.5%. The ratio for absentee ballots counted was 75% to 25%. Is this percentage difference suspicious or within what is considered a reasonable statistical variation?
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