Maybe I'm heat addled from fenceline work but that's no clearer than before. I don't see how that squares with the Democratic Poll Book images we were looking at last night that clearly had columns designated for both 6/3 and 6/24 on the same page. Is it now being asserted that that these books were improperly used?
When you vote in a primary, you take a Republican or Dem ballot. Your choice in recorded in an election book. In MS’s runoff, if you voted Dem in the primary, you’re not allowed to vote Republican in the runoff. The only way to get an accurate record of who voted, and in which primary they voted, would be to have two sets of books. One for the original primary, & one for the runoff. Then you can compare the two & see if any voters who selected a Dem ballot in the primary illegally selected a Republican ballot in the runoff.
The photo that was taken was of a copy from the runoff results (with the social security numbers of the voters redacted).
I presume that McDaniel’s people checked the D’s book from the original primary and marked down which of the R run-off voters had actually voted in the D primary.
It is true, though, that the R chair claims there were books where the poll worker started out marking things in the wrong column and then fixed it. So there must be official results which show somebody voting in both the D and the R elections. That photo must not be what the R chair was talking about though, because he said the worker crossed out the goofed-up parts when that happened.
I haven’t been working on fences, so I have spent some time here and I think I figured it out. :)
Since the primary was open, a voter could vote in either primary in the first election. The democrat and republican poll workers each had a book with all of the registered voters in it.
Anyone (D or R) who voted in the democrat primary was recorded as ‘voted’ in the democrat’s book. These people would not be eligible to vote in the republican runoff. (same for the other side if there had been a D runoff). The 6/24 column should have already been there so the same books could be used in a runoff.
On runoff day, the republicans should have taken the book that the democrats had used previously (switched books), so that when they looked up the name of someone voting, they would have known immediately if that person had voted in the democrat primary and so were ineligible.
This is apparently standard procedure and according to McInnis, not doing it is illegal. I don’t know enough about MS law, and I find it hard to take any democrat at his word, (freeper that I am), but if these things are true, there is *conspiracy* written all over it.
Hope this helps a little,
O2
Simple answer:
1. MS voters do not register by political party. Everyone is on the same list (voter roll).
2. Each political party gets a copy of the list in the form of a set of books (pollbooks). Each precinct has two sets of pollbooks: one for Democrats, one for Republicans.
3. The Dems recorded in their pollbooks that their voters voted in their primary on 6/3. The Republicans did the same for their voters in their pollbooks.
4. When there is a runoff election, the parties switch pollbooks (remember, it’s the exact same list of voters) so the poll workers verifying voter registrations for the runoff can see at a glance whether or not a voter is ineligible because he voted in the opposing party’s primary.
I can show you a pic if you like.