Chris McDaniel isn’t going to win any challenge to the Mississippi results
The voter intent problem
“Saying that the McDaniel camp has a slim chance of overturning the election overstates his chances.” That’s the summary of the situation from Matt Steffey, professor of law at the Mississippi College School of Law. We spoke by phone with Steffey to answer precisely that question: does McDaniel have a shot?
Or, really, to answer this question: When Chris McDaniel tells Politico (as he did) that he needs to pray and talk to his family before deciding if he’ll support Cochran, doesn’t that suggest that he is violating Mississippi code, section 23-15-575, which states that “no person shall be eligible to participate in any primary election unless he intends to support the nominations made in the primary”?
“Without question,” Steffey said. And, later: “Yes, yes. It shows the absurdity of this.” A second opinion, from Dr. Rob Mellen, assistant professor in political science at Mississippi State University: “I think that if you look at it in the spirit of the law, that certainly could be a violation of what the law was.”
The Fix
WAPO
6/28/14
Magnolia Tribune
