State GOP Wants To Be Dismissed From Lawsuit

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Chairman Joe Nosef says the Mississippi Republican Party will ask to be dismissed as a defendant in a federal lawsuit.

Thirteen Mississippi residents and a Texas group, True the Vote, are suing over access to poll books from the Republican primary runoff between Sen. Thad Cochran and challenger Chris McDaniel.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday against Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and the state GOP, seeks to compel the release of poll books without redacting voters’ birthdates.

Plaintiffs say they want to look for people marked as voting in the June 3 Democratic primary and the June 24 Republican runoff. State law prohibits such crossover voting.

Nosef said Wednesday that the GOP has done nothing wrong.

Hosemann says his office doesn’t possess poll books or have authority to publicly release them.