Thread: JOHN MCCAIN: COCHRAN'S TACTICS AGAINST TEA PARTY IN MS WORTH EMULATING

JOHN MCCAIN: COCHRAN'S TACTICS AGAINST TEA PARTY IN MS WORTH EMULATING




by AWR HAWKINS 30 Jun 2014 436POST A COMMENT

VIDEO AT LINK:

One week after traveling to Mississippi to do his utmost to help Senator Thad Cochran (R) beat Tea Party rival Chris McDaniel, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) talked about the strengths he saw in Cochran's approach to campaigning.

According to AZ Central, McCain dismissed criticism over the tactics the Republican Establishment used to get black Democrats to cross over and vote for Cochran.

Said McCain, "There are some people complaining that African-American voters voted. [But] I thought one of the major priorities of the Republican Party was to get all minority and ethnic voters out to vote for Republicans."

He described Cochran's "get-out-the-vote campaign" as "excellent," then talked about how he will face similar circumstances in Arizona and needs to work equally as hard if he runs again. "The key is you'd better pay attention, you'd better work hard, you'd better organize." He added, "And you'd better understand that there's a strong anti-Washington/anti-incumbency sentiment out there, which is justified and you've got your work cut out for you."

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/06/30/McCain-Cochran-s-Tactics-Against-Tea-Party-In-Mississippi-Worth-Emulating

Cochran Campaign Manager, Staffer Busted in Illegal Vote Buying Operation

Charles C. Johnson and Joel S. Gilbert
Democrat black reverend, who brought "hundreds" to the polls for promise of payment, exposes alleged massive voter fraud, vote buying operation by Cochran campaign.



A black reverend stiffed by the Cochran campaign has exposed an alleged criminal conspiracy by Cochran staffers to commit massive voter fraud ahead of Tuesday's controversial U.S. Senate Republican runoff election in Mississippi.



Reverend Stevie Fielder, associate pastor at historic First Union Missionary Baptist Church and former official at Meridian's redevelopment agency, says he delivered "hundreds or even thousands," of blacks to the polls after being offered money and being assured by a Cochran campaign operative that Chris McDaniel was a racist. "They [the Cochran campaign] told me to offer blacks fifteen dollars each and to vote for Thad."
It is illegal under several provisions of Mississippi law and federal law for campaign officials to bribe voters with cash and punishable up to five years in jail. (MS Code 97-13-1; MS Code 97-13-3 (2013) (Federal Code 18 U.S.C. 597, U.S.C. 1973i(c)) Voter fraud schemes are not unusual for Mississippi. In 1999 Mississippi's attorney general reported massive voter fraud allegations throughout the Magnolia state. In 2011, a Mississippi NAACP leader was sent to prison for voter fraud, according to the Daily Caller.


It would seem that laws were broken here, too. At the direction of the Cochran campaign, Reverend Fielder went "door to door, different places, mostly impoverished neighborhoods, to the housing authorities and stuff like that," telling fellow blacks that McDaniel was a racist and promising them $15 per vote. "They sold me on the fact that he was a racist and that the right thing to do was to keep him out of office," Fielder says.



Text messages released to Got News and a recorded interview with Reverend Fielder confirmed that Saleem Baird, a staffer with the Cochran campaign and current legislative aide to U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, and Cochran campaign manager, Kirk Sims, were involved in a $15 per vote cash bribery scheme to target members of the black community.




"They said they needed black votes," said the Reverend Fielder on the phone. He says Baird told him to put "give the fifteen dollars in each envelope to people as they go in and vote. You know, not right outside of the polling place but he would actually recruit people with the $15 dollars and they would go in and vote." Fielder said he received thousands of dollars in envelopes from Baird and distributed them accordingly. Fielder also says he went to the campaign office on another occasion to pick up $300 in cash and was among a room full of people who were doing the same thing he was.



Fielder said that Saleem Baird was doing the same thing with people all over the state. Fielder believes that the racism charge against McDaniel and the promise of $15 a vote motivated 'thousands' of black Democrats like him to vote for Cochran in the runoff. When asked if Fielder would have been more suspicious of Baird's promises had he

For his efforts, Fielder says the Cochran campaign and Baird promised him $16,000 for paying black voters $15 a vote, but Baird wound up stiffing him. Baird even asked him to delete all texts between the two of them. In addition to Baird, Fielder says he spoke with Kirk Sims, the Cochran campaign manager, and a woman named "Amanda" with the campaign, most likely Amanda Shook, director of operations to re-elect Thad Cochran. All refused to pay him the agreed upon amount of $16,000.
Baird realized he had been lied to when he "took a good look at the campaign ads" and realized "McDaniel was not a racist...me and other people were misguided and misled."

Fielder confronted Saleem the weekend before the election and asked about whether or not McDaniel was actually a racist and Baird confirmed it. Baird 'personally confirmed that McDaniel was a racist." Baird 'manipulated me to manipulate many other people," says Fielder. Baird did not disclose that he worked as a paid legislative staffer for Senator Roger Wicker. Fielder also says he spoke with campaign manager Kirk Sims about getting paid and about the ethnical complaints he had.


Fielder is a Democrat but said he has voted for Republicans in the past. And though Fielder is being paid for his story by Got News, he says he'd come forward anyways. 'I thought what I did was wrong.' Fielder said he was motived mostly by concerns that McDaniels was a racist, not money.

As to what should happen next, 'definitely the election should not be allowed to stand," says Fielder, who says he'll support McDaniel in event of a special election. 'He's been done wrong. He's not what they said that he is.'




Got News tried calling both Baird and Sims with Fielder on the line. We got through to Sims but Sims insisted that there was a bad connection when Fielder asked about the racist smear campaign against Chris McDaniel and hung up. Were Baird found to have violated any laws in this matter, this would not be his first time he had a brush with the wrong side of the law. In 2011, Baird, who is a legislative staffer with U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, was allowed to keep his job with the senator after being arrested on charges of running an illegal strip joint in Jackson.Fully aware that we have helped reveal the Cochran campaign may be involved in a criminal conspiracy, Got News will turn over any and all evidence to law enforcement.


Got News--which will publish additional stories in the coming days--is made possible by donations from individuals like you. Please consider supporting our independent journalism. www.gotnews.com

BREAKING: New Allegations Point to Cochran Campaign in Mississippi Senate Vote Buying Scandal

By: Aaron Gardner (Diary) |
June 30th, 2014




An audio interview has surfaced in which the interviewee claims that he was to be paid by the Cochran camp to grease voters in the Mississippi GOP Senate runoff election. The audio interview, which coincides with a separate audio recording and batch of evidence produced by the newly launchedGotNews.com, a project by Charles C. Johnson, alleges that the Cochran campaign conspired with a Mississippi Reverend to buy the votes of African American voters, who happen to be democrats.

Before I get into the weeds of what is in the audio interview and transcript, which are both below, let me set up the stage a bit. What is alleged to have occurred is illegal and very serious business. Under Mississippi law the alleged crimes could lead to Thad Cochran being removed from the Senate. Everything that follows comes from sources either on the ground in Mississippi, or those working closely with them.

Reverend Fielder has claimed to have evidence that would prove illegal activity took place in the Mississippi GOP Senate run off election. Furthermore, the evidence he claims he has would implicate the Barbour machine and a staffer to Cochran’s Senate campaign. The motivations of the Reverend are not those of a saint. As is made clear throughout the interview and in the transcript, this Reverend is looking to get paid to provide information, just as he sought to get paid to deliver votes by illegal means. Reverend Fielder claims that Cochran’s people were supposed to pay him approximately $15,000 for his efforts, but failed to do so after the incumbent Senator had achieved victory in the run off.

With all of that said, if the evidence is produced and validated, I don’t know how much longerThad Cochran will be a Senator.

Let’s go straight to the tape.

Reverend Fielder begins with a small biography about how he was raised in the Democratic Machine by his father. After that he starts to talk about his motives and what he did.

I was like this now you know, I worked very hard for Thad, and I got close to some people that in trouble in the loop and were doing some things that I witnessed and know about and threw money to people for it, that I know that’s against ethics and all of that, and ah, I’m supposed to get paid on the back end and I didn’t and then I said how many times do I have to get burned by people in politics that um you know say after the votes counted say “hey” and it don’t come, this is what they do, so, You all had your reasons for not liking what happened, I had my reason that was the pay, and um, like

Knowing what it would take to hand the district to him because he couldn’t stand up behind the allegations of proof that I would put out, um he would have to turn the district loose. I mean That’s all there is to it. You know I mean you don’t just throwin things out there that I don’t think nobody would frown if a person paid black people 15 dollars a vote to vote, you know what I’m saying.You know I, you let me know what you feel about it as we discuss it.

INTERVIEWER: you said you DON’T think that anybody would frown on it?

FIELDER: I said I DO think.

INTERVIEWER : I do too. I don’t think that that’s right.

Reverend Fielder admits that he “worked very hard for Thad” and that he witnessed and participated in throwing “money to people for it”, while also admitting what he participated in was unethical and he knew so at the time.
Next Fielder apparently shows the interviewer a text from Saleem Baird, who I will get to in a moment.

INTERVIEWER: So when you say 15 dollars per person to vote, how does that happen? What does that look like?

(Fielder shows interviewer text received from Saleem Baird)

Fielder : That’s just a text from one of the workers to me. Just scroll down now. Have to go through some things. ____ back up. And that was carried out numerous times. That’s basically 20 people times 15, that’s 300 dollars, a small scale they needed 10,000 votes, black votes, to make sure, that ah, that they would have enough to beat, ah, Chris.

Reverend Fielder then goes on to ask again about being taken care of if he provides all of the evidence he has.

But I’m not you know I know you know once I do it and turn it over and chris gets his chair, you know, I know where that leaves me. You know, It’s either I get something, or I’m a good Samaritan, you know, and I don’t think in these days and times too many people work in the good Samaritan thing, so I want to meet face to face, that I have proof, you know I have definitely did what is highly illegal for him to do. They put us in that situation. And so um, The thing is if chris want his seat, and if he want to deal with me for it for whatever I need to do, I don’t mind doin it, so the problem is you know if he think, if he think what I got will benefit him, then long as I done did it, and not out there stuck out high,

INTERVIEWER – so you need to be protected.

Fielder : Yeah that and you know taken care of. Cause see they beat me out of like 15,000 dollars for work that I did. I was supposed to get paid right at 2,000 a day from Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday and Tuesday. So these names like that he’s askin for was done over and over and over and over until Chris McDaniel didn’t have a chance.

After a brief mention of Saleem Baird, who we still need to get to, Reverend Fielder then details the process of buying votes.

INTERVIEWER: So what, there would um, he said he would have cash divided up into envelopes?

FIELDER: That was for the people.

INTERVIEWER: Can you describe the process for me? Like how does that work?

FIELDER: Well I mean you know, it’s a give and take. I don’t want to just go all the way. If y’all are offering something, then I’m offering something. You know, let’s just be realistic. If y’all are offering something then I’m offering something. The process is easy to describe. It’s basically just what it says. If a person wanted to do that, he would just have the 20 envelopes already ready with each one, he just catch the people goin into the polls, folks that you know and folks that you don’t know. And you know 15 dollars that’s what they vote worth, and that’s what y’all got tangled up at the very end, he was scared. And there was some unprofessional things done.
…
INTERVIEWER: At what point do they make the recommendation about who to vote for? Like how do they know who’s going to vote for who when they walk into the polling place?

FIELDER:: Well I mean you know, they a lot of time ain’t nobody with em, but you just gave ‘em 15 dollars, and telling them “hey, this is the guy to vote,” it looks like to me by the numbers that they did pretty much did what they were supposed to do. You know, So I don’t think I think for 15 dollars that for us to go on in there, if somebody wanted help, they got help, but pretty much people went in and did what they said they was gonna do.

INTERVIEWER: Who tells them who to vote for?

FIELDER: Well I think whoever they give the money to. If it gave me, if it was me had the thousands of dollars at a time 20 or 15 dollars at a person, so I go out and get these people, and hey, I’m doing what I’m told. You know the camp say this, and I realized that’s a ____ of mind. They just used a mean tactic. I remember years ago, in government they used to talk about a dollar a vote in the old days, years ago, they would have a thing already made out. But they want to make sure that, I don’t know how they put the price at 15 dollars, but ah it worked. And and all I know is he sent me you know that text among others to make sure that uh this how we do it, and this is how you pick it up. And he just give me the envelopes, and they go on, and that’s what’s in the envelope, 15 dollars, and all that, as you see it said all names addresses and all, I think they assumed ah, they’re not worried about that, they just had the envelope, just a plain white envelope.

Ok, that is a pretty detailed picture that was painted by the Reverend. His motives are clearly suspect, but it sounds like he knows what he is talking about when it comes to vote buying schemes.

Now we get to the naming of names.

INTERVIEWER: And so you would give him the names and addresses?

FIELDER: That’s what they was wantin. And I gave em supplied em yeah one time to this guy here.

INTERVIEWER: Saleem?

FIELDER: Uh huh. And he was high up in there. A guy high up into the thing.

INTERVIEWER: So saleem worked for thad Cochran?

FIELDER: YEAH!

INTERVIEWER: And what’s saleem’s last name? do you know?

FIELDER: B-A-I-R-D.

INTERVIEWER: Saleem Baird

FIELDER: Yeah. [shows me text again]

INTERVIEWER: Saleem O. Baird. OK. Um. So um, and they would give you the envelopes, and who would drive around and pick ‘em up at the addresses, you would do that?

FIELDER: Well, like I said now, I wanted you to come and let you see I had what we needed, and I know it would help you, but now I think it’s you all, you know it’s Chris’s turn, now that I done showed you that I got something that would help, and I know it would help you, I’m not stupid.

The Reverend balked on verbal confirmation of Saleem Baird as the Cochran staffer who facilitated the vote buying scheme, but if the text he referenced, featured at the GotNews site, is validated, that changes the game in many ways.
Reverend Fielder goes on to mention that he is on a timetable to sell this information because the Cochran camp wants to meet with him and delete all of the evidence from his phone.

They want me to erase everything, and they want to pay me, you know he called last night two three times, and they want to try to get together this evening and all of this, but I had talked to you all, I live up to my word. If it’s nothing that you all want to do with it, fine, I’ll just deal with em and be through. But if you all, I’m still giving you the chance, because I called you. And and and it’s gonna look bad, a guy helping the tea party, but I don’t care cuz the bottom line it was there’s some wrong that’s done. And ah if he’s, willing to ah, you know negotiate with me, I’m fine with helping him get his seat, cuz he I mean, he he was defeated by black people that was allegedly, I’ll say at this point until we deal, paid.

Now if you can see where that would help you fine, if you don’t? Just tell me now.

Well I mean, you know I told you, I brought some information to the table. And he don’t have a big window, cuz I know at 5, I’m supposed to meet ah, them, some of em was claiming from out of town some kind of way. I don’t know a johnny barbour, some barbour guy, you know em?

The interview then ends with a series of appeals from the Reverend to get paid.

Saleem Omar Baird is/was a staffer for Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker. You may remember Saleem Baird from an incident in 2011 which involved a strip club and the legislative aide being put on leave.

As implied in the interview, and confirmed by the text messages, Baird now works for the Cochran campaign and allegedly participated in a vote buying scheme to secure victory in the Mississippi.

As I said at the beginning, these allegations are no joke. Under MS Code § 23-15-561 (2013)which is a subsection of the Article on the Conduct of Elections, it is unlawful for both the Cochran campaign or outside supporters to “publicly or privately put up or in any way offer any prize, cash award or other item of value to be raffled, drawn for, played for or contested for in order to encourage persons to vote or to refrain from voting in any election.”
Is doesn’t take a genius to figure out that $15 in an envelope with a flier telling you who to vote for might fit into the definitions laid out in MS Code § 23-15-561 (2013).

The statute goes on to note a fine of $5000 and a prescription for candidates found guilty of engaging in any of the above schemes.

(3) Any candidate who shall violate the provisions of subsection (1) of this section shall, upon conviction thereof, in addition to the fine prescribed above, be punished by:
(a) Disqualification as a candidate in the race for the elective office; or
(b) Removal from the elective office, if the offender has been elected thereto.

As more information comes to light, Thad Cochran, heck, the entire Mississippi, might want to look into who the best lawyers are, both elections and criminal.

Full audio:
Transcript: Reverend Fielder Transcript


After the story broke here on RedState and on GotNews.com, Charles C. Johnson and I joined Thomas LaDuke for a special episode of the Snark Factor and to discuss these latest allegations of vote buying. You can listen here.

http://www.redstate.com/2014/06/30/b...uying-scandal/

Above post also at.

http://www.alipac.us/f19/obama-ready-mobilize-cochran-his-new-gun-control-patsy-305750/#post1421354

June 30, 2014

That giant sucking sound: conservatives fleeing the GOP's "Big Tent"

By Bryan Fischer

Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"

When even the Democrats admit the election was stolen, it's time for a re-do.

Sen. Thad Cochran emerged from the June 24 GOP senate primary run-off election against state senator Chris McDaniel with a margin of victory of about 6700 votes. Haley Barbour's machine dangled enough money in front of enough Democrats to get 35,000 of their votes for Cochran.

Now if any of those Democrats voted in the Democratic primary on June 3, they were ineligible to vote in the Cochran-McDaniel run-off.

Thus, if the poll books indicate that somewhere in the neighborhood of 7000 votes were improperly and illegally cast, this election should be headed toward yet another run-off. Maybe this time it will be fair.

According to Breitbart, Claude McInnis, the Hinds County Democratic Party election coordinator, believes there were a whole truckload of fraudulent Democratic votes cast in his county alone.

"I'm going to guess 3,000," he told Breitbart. "It may be more, but I only have access to the Democratic votes, so that's what I'm guessing the difference may be."

Even worse for the Barbour Regime Machine, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, Rickey Cole, is admitting the election likely was stolen from McDaniel. He told Breitbart that "it is very conceivable" that the McDaniel camp "will find a number of irregularities that will reach 6,700 or greater," a number which would call for a new election.

"You don't have to prove who they voted for," said Cole. "You just have to prove there were that many ineligible ballots. That puts the intent of the voting public in doubt, and that's the path by which a court would order a new election."

By the way, Cole strikes me as a pretty shrewd operator. He wanted McDaniel to win this thing all along, thinking McDaniel would be easier for Childers to beat in November. He's now in a position to cause a lot of grief for the GOP by talking about the fraudulent and manipulated nature of the vote, and he's going to enjoy doing it. And he just might wind up with McDaniel as the opponent of choice after all.

Neil Munro of the Daily Caller is reporting this morning that "Volunteers working for tea party challenger Chris McDaniel in Mississippi say they have already found 20 percent of the invalid double-votes they need to cancel Sen. Thad Cochran's business-funded runoff victory."

McDaniel's press aide, Noel Fritsch, says they have confirmed 1,500 hinky votes in Hinds County alone. McDaniel's staff believes that there are problems in no less than 10 counties, and are also reporting that the GOP establishment is doing its best to block their access to the poll books which could prove malfeasance, even though state law explicitly requires that clerks give them such access.

It would certainly behoove Gov. Phil Bryant not to certify this election until all questions of fraudulent ballots have been resolved.

In addition, 19,000 absentee votes were cast in the run-off, and early reports indicated that some notary publics had fraudulently obtained absentee ballots for voters who didn't show up on June 3, Democrats in particular, then filled them out for Cochran and notarized them themselves.

Regardless of how this all turns out – in my judgment, justice clearly dictates a judge should order a new run-off election – the establishment GOP has dealt itself the mother of all black eyes.

Rumors have swirled that, given Cochran's advanced age and declining mental acuity, the larger plot line here was for the Haley Barbour machine to get Cochran re-elected in order to have him step down after a couple of years so that Mississippi's Republican governor could appoint Barbour himself to his senate seat.

If that was indeed the grand plan, it just got blown out of the tub.

By the way, Cochran is not the Democratic darling everybody is trying to pretend he is. The NAACP grades Cochran out with an "F."

The amount of ill will the GOP establishment has generated among grassroots conservatives in Mississippi is off the charts. According to a poll released by Chism Strategies, 50% of Mississippians think less of Haley Barbour than they did before these reprehensible shenanigans began.

According to the same poll, Republican voters are so disgusted that just 22% intend to vote for Cochran in November. Worse for GOP poobahs, 21% intend to vote for the Democrat, Travis Childers. And somewhere between 74% and 79% of these same Republican voters would vote for McDaniel as a third party or write-in candidate. This includes a whole lot of Republicans who pulled the lever for Cochran in the runoff.

This is a clear indication that grassroots conservatives have had it up to their eyelids with being taken for granted, patronized, and now, perhaps worst of all, disenfranchised by their own party.

Even though, bizarrely enough, write-in votes won't be counted in November, as long as both candidates are still alive, many Republicans fully intend to write in McDaniel's name anyway as a form of protest. They're beyond caring that this might boost Childers' chances, in part because they see little difference between Childers and Cochran. Both believe in more taxes and more spending, and Childers is as pro-life as Cochran and opposes gay marriage to boot.

If the unethical and likely fraudulent election result is allowed to stand, I expect that the GOP is going to get a lot of unopened fundraising letters marked "Return to Sender" with "Remember Mississippi" scrawled across the front.

Ruling class Republicans spent $23 million this primary season seeking to decimate and obliterate the Tea Party, and showed in the McDaniel race that they were willing to resort to shameless race-baiting and reprehensible and slanderous lies to obtain their political objectives. The GOP elites may have driven off their base for good.

Ordinary grassroots conservatives will bolt the party in droves; that giant sucking sound will be the sound of conservatives heading for the exits of the GOP's laughably misnamed "Big Tent." It's not in fact big enough for either Chris McDaniel or his supporters.

The GOP establishment will wind up with a lot of money and no people. They'll be all chiefs and no Indians, all generals and no infantry.

This run-off election should permanently put to rest the conceit that the black vote is suppressed in the South. The folks that were disenfranchised in this election were grassroots conservatives. And unless GOP leadership apologizes to Mississippi Republicans and calls for a thorough investigation of voter irregularity, those grassroots conservatives may be gone for good.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)

© Bryan Fischer

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/140630

MISSISSIPPI GOP, STATE SUED OVER VOTE FRAUD

True the Vote warns of discovery of thousands of election anomalies

JAMES SIMPSO07/01/2014

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss, (left) and Chris McDaniel (right)

True the Vote, the citizens initiative pursuing “free and fair elections for all Americans,” and 13 other plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Mississippi Secretary of State and the Republican Party of Mississippi over the June 24 primary election runoff in which Sen. Thad Cochran edged tea-party challenger Chris McDaniel.

The lawsuit asks the court to grant immediate access to voting records to inspect for possible illegal voting. It asserts that “defendants failed to properly abide by federal election record maintenance and open records provisions codified in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). Records made partially available to the plaintiffs indicated ‘double-voting’ from Democratic to Republican primaries – potentially diluting votes in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”

The complaint explains that the National Voter Registration Act supersedes Mississippi law.

“All we are asking is that the Mississippi 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 Mississippi 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,” said True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht.

McDaniel won the June 3 state GOP primary with a margin too small (about 1,500 votes) to avoid a runoff. Cochran won the runoff with 7,000 votes, allegedly by convincing thousands of black Democrats to cross over and vote for him in the runoff.
One campaign flyer in particular claimed McDaniel intended to prevent blacks from voting. A radio announcement implied that McDaniel was going to defund welfare and urged blacks to vote for Cochran: “By not voting, you’re saying, ‘Take away all of my government programs, such as food stamps, early breakfast and lunch programs, millions of dollars to our black universities …’”

The McDaniel campaign has been considering a legal challenge since the day of the runoff. McDaniel alleges that Democrats made thousands of illegal crossover votes in the runoff, having already voted in the Democratic primary. Two days after the runoff, he reported having found over 1,000 votes in Hinds County alone – the state capital seat – in which voters allegedly voted in the Democrat primary, then crossed over to vote in the GOP runoff.

Reached on Tuesday, McDaniel Campaign Communications Director Noel Fritsch says that number has now increased to about 1,500. Another 600 to 800 have been found in Pine Belt counties.

“We are on the ground in 75 of Mississippi’s 82 counties but we have not yet accessed half the counties’ poll books,” he said. “Many people are coming forward with accounts of irregularities in the precincts and on the ground within the communities.”
True the Vote has been monitoring the Mississippi Republican primary runoff from the beginning. On June 21, the group released figures showing unusual voter turnout patterns based on historic data and on June 25, sent a letter to Mississippi GOP Chairman Joe Nosef asserting that “violations of Mississippi and federal law have occurred” and warning of possible legal action:

“The systematic refusal to allow qualified poll watchers the ability to be present, to examine absentee voter qualifications and challenge where appropriate, creates an inappropriate cloud on any result of this important election. In order to avoid potential state and federal legal challenges we request that you preserve all absentee ballot applications, absentee ballots and accompanying mailing envelopes until the challenges to them can be resolved …”

The election has seen an endless string of twists, turns and allegations. Hinds County GOP Chairman Pete Perry has been criticized because he runs a consulting firm that was paid $60,000 by Mississippi Conservatives, a PAC created to support Cochran. Prior to the runoff, Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole posted in Facebook that some Democratic Party activists were working with Perry to convince black Democrats to vote for Cochran. According to the Clarion-Ledger:

“Large sums of cash are being passed around,” Cole said in the Facebook message. “These guys are old-school ‘walking around money’ vote buyers. It is happening in Hinds County, but they are trying to move black voters in the Delta, Adams (sic), Jefferson (sic), and Claiborne (sic) too.”

Mississippi Conservatives PAC represents a who’s who of the state GOP establishment. It is run by Henry Barbour, RNC member and nephew to former Gov. Haley Barbour, a lifelong Cochran friend and supporter. Henry’s brother, Austin, a Cochran adviser, and former campaign director for Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, was put in charge of the campaign following Cochran’s defeat in the primary. He was assisted in the get-out-the-vote effort by former state GOP Chairman Brad White. The National Senatorial Republican Committee sent field staff to help out as well.

Interestingly, Jeppie Barbour, Austin’s father and Haley’s brother, broke with the family and backed McDaniel. He stated, “I am for McDaniel because Congress spends too much money and Thad Cochran is right in the middle of spending and borrowing money… I resent my grandchildren having to pay for these politicians to party. I am ready for a change.”

In April, blogger Clayton Kelly sneaked into a nursing home to photograph Cochran’s Alzheimer’s-afflicted wife on Easter Sunday, an image that was later used in a video slamming Cochran. The blogger and three others were arrested for the stunt. One of them, attorney Mark Mayfield, a well-respected local attorney, committed suicide on June 27.

Just after the primary, three McDaniel supporters were found locked inside a local courthouse that also housed some primary ballots. They apparently became trapped after entering a rear door that locked behind them, and they sought out employees who could help them leave. The ballot boxes were stored in a secure area without access. No charges were filed.

In yet another twist, Pete Perry was arrested Saturday night on drunk driving charges.

In Mississippi, certification of primary elections is performed by the State Party Executive Committee, rather than the Secretary of State. The committee has a very short window to certify. On June 30 the Clarion Ledger published a memo Joe Nosef sent to county GOP leaders citing “confusion” over the process. He said counties must certify results by the morning of July 1, because the state committee must meet on the same day at 2 p.m. to canvass the results from the 82 counties. The state committee then has until the 7th to certify. According to Nosef, ballot boxes can be accessed, “only after the county committees have completed the certification process… Each party has 12 days from county certification to review the poll books and other ballot information.”

John Pittman Hay, a widely recognized Mississippi voting expert, stated that while Nosef is essentially correct, as far as state law is concerned, polling books in some counties remained open after the election. The confusion stems from the different ways counties handle polling books and ballot boxes, and changes in the law over the last 20 years. Polling books are maintained for each party and list names, addresses and birthdays of all registered voters and voting history. Comparing entries would reveal if, for example, a Democratic voters had voted in both the Democratic primary and the GOP runoff. However, since 1997, state law requires redacting date of birth, age, and Social Security numbers, so accurately identifying double voting is difficult.

Ballot boxes, on the other hand, contain paper ballots, absentee ballots, affidavit ballots, signature cards and other records. They are sealed after the election, and cannot be opened until after the county certifies. Campaigns then have 12 days to examine the contents. Some counties leave poll books in the ballot box, making them also inaccessible. Some keep poll books out. It is these latter records that the McDaniel campaign has likely already reviewed. While ballot box information becomes available after counties certify, the election challenge deadline starts when the state party certifies.

True the Vote’s lawsuit seeks to disable the redaction requirement and force the ballot boxes open based on federal law, whether the county has certified or not. It consists of 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” between Democratic and Republican primaries are unlawful dilutions of individual votes.

Seemingly on cue, a black Mississippi pastor claimed in an interview published Monday that he was hired to pay black Democrats to vote. Charles Johnson at GotNews.com posted an audio interview with Rev. Stevie Fielder, associate pastor at the First Union Missionary Baptist Church, who says he delivered “hundreds or even thousands,” of blacks to the polls after being offered money and being assured by a Cochran campaign operative that Chris McDaniel was a racist. “They [the Cochran campaign] told me to offer blacks fifteen dollars each and to vote for Thad.”

Fielder showed text messages from one Saleem Baird, a staffer for Sen. Wicker. Phone texts imply that Baird now works for the Cochran campaign. Johnson claims to have confirmed that the phone number connected to the text messages is indeed that of Saleem Baird. Baird is not new to notoriety, having been arrested in 2011 for running a strip club without proper permits. He was cleared of charges and remained on Wicker’s staff.

Fielder’s story was that he was he was promised $16,000 to provide names of Democrats who could be bought. He says he was never paid and now wants to sell what he knows. He was also paid to be interviewed.
The Cochran campaign called the allegations “baseless and false.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/mississip...Hx3D1duf5uQ.99

Boss Hog of Mississippi?

FNC REPORT: HALEY BARBOUR TIED TO RACE-BAITING, ANTI-TEA PARTY RADIO ADS IN MS

REPORT: HALEY BARBOUR BEHIND RACE-BAITING,...

Report: Haley Barbour Behind Race-Baiting, Anti-Tea Party Ads in MS










on BREITBART TV 1 Jul 2014 888POST A COMMENT
On Tuesday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” network correspondent Ainsley Earhardt unveiled one of the attack radio spots that aired on stations around the state including WMGO 1370 AM in Canton, MS.


The spot urges listeners to participate in the vote and warns if voters fail to do so, it will result in the loss of entitlement benefits and funding for black universities.

"If someone tells you that by voting today, you cannot vote in November - it’s just a Tea Party, bald-faced lie." Are you going to let the clock run out on today? By not voting, you are saying 'take away all of my government programs, such as food stamps, early breakfast and lunch programs, millions of dollars to our black universities.’ Everything we and our families depend on that comes from Washington will be cut. Mississippi will never be the same. The question is, will you spend $5 on gas to vote, or allow the Tea Party to send us back to the good ol’ bad days? Vote against the Tea Party. Vote Thad Cochran."

Earhart identified the group responsible for the ad to be a group called Citizens for Progress, which according to Earhart is a group tied to former RNC chair and Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS).


Partial transcript as follows:
HANNITY: Just to be clear, the owner of this radio station – because that’s race-baiting -- is saying this came directly from one Republican group that was supporting Cochran against another Republican?
EARHART: Well, he told us who wrote the check. And at the end of each of those ads, it has to be connected to a group. The name of that group is Citizens for Progress. That group is associated with Haley Barbour.
HANNITY: Wow, he's got some answering to do on that.
EARHART: Yeah, exactly.
We did reach out to both camps. Cochran camp says they’re denying all these accusations. They’re saying these are baseless and that they’re false.
HANNITY: Cochran -- I don't believe that for a minute. That's my editorial. Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt you.
EARHART: McDaniel’s camp says they’re taking this very seriously. And they did send us a statement. Let me read the statement: “Not including the votes which were allegedly bought by the Cochran camp, our grassroots volunteers have already found around 2,500 ineligible votes. That is votes cast in the Republican runoff on June 24, by voters who voted in the Democratic primary on June 3. We are examining all the data that we can gain access to in order to launch a legal challenge. And our preliminary findings indicate that further investigation is certainly warranted after we've examined all the data, we will make a determination about possible legal recourse.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-T...adio-Ads-in-MS