Geoff Pender

The Clarion-Ledger

Chris McDaniel on Thursday filed notice with Thad Cochran's son that he intends to examine voting records in all 82 counties, prelude to an expected official challenge of primary runoff results next week.

State law requires the campaign to contact either the opposing candidate or someone in his family that they intend to scrutinize voting records. A Cochran spokesman on Thursday said McDaniel provided notice to Cochran's son, Clayton Cochran. The campaign on Wednesday said Cochran was en route to Washington.

Chris McDaniel is offering 15 rewards of $1,000 each for anyone who can provide evidence of voter fraud that leads to arrest or conviction in his effort to overturn the June 24 GOP primary he lost.

UPDATE: Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann has responded to a lawsuit filed this week by conservative group True the Vote against Hoseman and the state Republican Party alleging it was denied access to election records.

Hosemann's statement:

In response to the litigation against the State of Mississippi, the Secretary of State's Office has not violated any federal or State laws and should be immediately dismissed from this litigation. Every citizen should anticipate this Agency will follow scrupulously Mississippi law, as enacted by Mississippi citizens through its legislative process.

Those include:

1. In the event the Secretary of State's Office is made aware of any person voting in both a Democratic Primary and a Republican primary, those individuals' names will be forwarded to the District Attorney and Attorney General for whatever prosecutorial action they deem appropriate.

2. The Secretary of State's Office possesses no pollbooks from either the June 3rd Primary Election or the June 24th Primary Runoff Election. We support full disclosure of pollbooks to the public in accordance with Mississippi law.

3. The Secretary of State's Office has committed no violation of the National Voter Registration Act and will not. This Agency followed federal and state law in implementing Voter ID and will continue to follow all voting laws.

4. The Secretary of State's Office requested a change in the law to require our Agency to report on Mississippi elections to the public and Legislature. As required by the State Legislature, this Office issues Election Day Reports for all elections in Mississippi. The public should anticipate a report for the June 24th Primary Runoff Election.

5. Party Primary Elections are the responsibility of the Party, not the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State's Office does not certify primary election results. The Secretary of State only receives certified results from the party in order to prepare the General Election ballot.

State Sen. Chris McDaniel says "Sen. Thad Cochran's campaign allegedly paid $15 per vote to steal the June 24 Republican primary election."

"To fight the alleged corruption, we need your help," a new McDaniel website says. "Just $15 will help us begin to eradicate corruption in Mississippi. $15 represents the first steps in helping Chris clean up this mess."

McDaniel says he will use the $15 donations to fund 15 rewards of $1,000 to people who provide evidence of voter fraud that leads to arrests and convictions.

UPDATED: The Cochran campaign is accusing McDaniel of narcissism in response to McDaniel's offer of $1K bounty for vote fraud evidence.

Cochran campaign spokesman Jordan Russell: "With each passing day, and each new stunt, it becomes clearer and clearer that Chris McDaniel does not care about Mississippi, that he does not care about the integrity of the process, that he does not care about winning a majority in the Senate and keeping the seat in Republican hands in November.

"What Chris McDaniel cares about is himself. The only thing Chris McDaniel cares about is himself, actually."

EARLIER POST:

Every time the Mississippi GOP U.S. Senate appears to cross the Rubicon, it doubles back and crosses it again.

A day after McDaniel started soliciting $50 bucks from supporters to help him overturn the June 24 runoff he lost, he's offering a bounty for any voting fraud evidence people can turn over.

Now, according to him and his campaign, they've supposedly already uncovered thousands of illegal votes.

So it would appear there's ample opportunity for folks to collect a cool grand from McDaniel.

This just came across from the McDaniel campaign. He's offering rewards for evidence of voter fraud:

Republican Chris McDaniel announced the launch of his "Election Integrity Challenge and Voter Fraud Reward" today.

The Challenge is aimed at funding fifteen $1,000 rewards which will be paid to individuals who provide evidence leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in voter fraud on or leading up to the June 24, 2014, Republican primary runoff election in Mississippi.

McDaniel issued the challenge on the heels of yet another allegation of criminal misconduct aimed at the Cochran campaign's effort to bring ineligible voters to the polls on June 24.

Hinds County Democratic Party Chairman Claude McInnis alleged that Cochran supporter and paid campaign operative Pete Perry "asked Democrats to help him "break the law" by working together to accept Democratic voters who voted in the June 3 Democratic primary and in Tuesday's GOP runoff." Perry also oversaw the GOP's primary in Hinds County.

Another allegation of criminal misconduct surfaced Monday when Rev. Stevie Fielder claimed to have been paid by the Cochran campaign to pay members of his church community $15 per person to vote for Sen. Cochran.

"The most important issue here is maintaining the integrity of the electoral process here in Mississippi," McDaniel said. "These allegations of criminal behavior on behalf of the Cochran are troubling, and any evidence of fraud will be turned over to the authorities to be investigated."

The McDaniel campaign launched a website dedicated to the Election Integrity Challenge and Voter Fraud Reward.