True The Vote files suit against Mississippi

True The Vote files suit naming Mississippi’s Secretary of State and Mississippi State Republican Party

Thad Cochran | IMAGE CREDIT: Created from public domain

OXFORD, Miss., July 1, 2014 — Voter integrity activist organization True The Vote files suit in federal court naming Mississippi’s Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and the Mississippi State Republican Party including party chairman Joe Nosef. True the Vote alleges the respondents violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) on three counts.

Count One: Violation of NVRA’s Public Disclosure Provision. Shortly before the Republican Primary Runoff Election, True the Vote, via its volunteer base, made a valid and timely request to review voter rolls and poll books under the NVRA, but it was denied access to those records.
Count Two: Individual Plaintiffs Allege a Violation of NVRA Based on Conflict with State Laws. Plaintiffs seek a declaration that the NVRA preempts any state requirement calling for public election information to be redacted at the cost of the requestor.
Count Three: Individual Plaintiffs Allege an Equal Protection Violation. Discovering potential instances of “double-voting”.

True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht released the following remarks in an official press release from the organization:

All we are asking is that the MS State Republican Party follow the law; allow their designated county representatives to inspect the poll books and ballots, give them the review time they are permitted by law, and allow them to uphold their responsibility to MS voters. True the Vote has been inundated with reports from voters across Mississippi who are outraged to see the integrity of this election being undermined so that politicos can get back to business as usual. Enough is enough.
This isn’t about personality, party, or politics. Senators come and go. What must withstand the test of time is the integrity of the process by which we elect our representatives and establish our government. No candidate or party should ever be allowed to twist election laws or subvert voters’ rights in the interest of political ambition.

The suit is, in part, a response to the contended results in the Thad Cochran – Chris McDaniel runoff election. The Daily Caller reports that Cochran won the runoff by about 6,800 votes. The McDaniel campaign claims auditors have found as many as 1,500 invalid votes in one county alone. Another report from The Daily Caller alleges Henry Barbour, the head of Mississippi Conservatives PAC, may have paid Democrats to vote in the Republican runoff election, a possible violation of election laws.

Conversely, ABC News published an Associated Press article by Emily Wagster Pettus that claims the McDaniel camp has yet to produce any evidence that would confirm voter fraud affected the campaign to a great enough extent to overturn the election results.

Here is True the Vote’s official complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi:
232166906-True-the-Vote-v-Mississippi-Complaint