The Republican Party is demanding that Mississippi election officials “separate and preserve” all provisional ballots cast in the midterms — the first step in a likely bid to throw out votes in the state’s extremely close U.S. Senate race*.
The vote count is ongoing, and Democrat Scott Colom currently leads Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith ® by several hundred votes, with certification due by Nov. 13. His victory would represent a significant upset in the state’s Republican-dominated politics.
So, let me get this straight: the Republican candidate is currently behind and wants them to stop counting?
I think the whole strategy is to win the provisional ballot fight and get the secretary of state to trigger a recount on the main ballots and hope that recount goes really well for them and shutdown any further recounting after that and then somehow keep the provisionals from ever being counted.
I think it’s a lot of hopium.
I actually didn’t doubt they have lawyers standing by with a completely procedurally unsound emergency brief to the Supreme Court to demand they stop counting, ready to file at any moment Colom gets behind in the count.