Lauderdale County is among 46 Mississippi counties issued subpoena’s Tuesday from attorneys for Chris McDaniel seeking election records in the June 3 primary and June 24 primary runoff.

    The subpoenas by McDaniel Attorney Mitchell Tyner were sent to circuit clerks in the counties instructing that election records be delivered to Jones County by Friday.

    “Bart Gavins, Jones County Circuit Clerk, has agreed to secure the subpoenaed election materials received from you and to provide access as needed by the court and parties for the pretrial and trial of this matter,” Tyner wrote in a subpoena to Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk Donna Jill Johnson.

    “It was kind of a massive project, but we were subpoenaed to do it and have collected that material,” Lauderdale County Election Commission Chairman Jeff Tate said Wednesday afternoon. “Right now we are on standby to receive instructions logistically to make sure those documents are delivered.”

    Sen. Thad Cochran defeated McDaniel in the June 24 Republican primary runoff by a margin of 7,667 votes, according to certified election results.

    McDaniel has challenged the results, however, with a Sept. 16 start day for the trial. Judge Hollis McGehee is expected to hear pretrial arguments in the case today in Jones County.

    On Tuesday, Mississippi election commissioners approved a November ballot which includes Cochran, Democrat Travis Childers and Reform Party candidate Shawn O’Hara.

    Some circuit clerks said Wednesday that gathering the records requested in the subpoena will require a great deal of work and expense, the Associated Press reports.

    Tate said that it was his understanding that some counties were seeking to have the subpoena overturned.

    An attempt Wednesday to reach Lauderdale County Board Attorney Lee Thaggard was unsuccessful. Jones County Circuit Clerk Bart Gavins also could not be reached, but a staff person in his office confirmed that the subpoena had been issued to 46 of the 82 counties in Mississippi.

    Tyner told the Associated Press the subpoenas demand the kind of material that McDaniel campaign representatives wanted to see in July when they were seeking examples of improper election practices, such as people voting in the June 3 Democratic primary and the June 24 Republican runoff. Such crossover voting is prohibited. McDaniel representatives were not allowed to make copies of some documents they wanted, he said.

    “It really hamstrings the candidate when you do that,” Tyner said.

    Tate said he was surprised that Lauderdale County was among those subpoenaed.

    “In the 200-plus page McDaniel report that went county by county showing discrepancies and irregularities, there were no discrepancies or irregularities listed in that repair from Lauderdale County,” Tate said. “There were none.”

    Items the subpoena instructs be turned over are:

    1) Original Democrat poll books used in the June 3 primary — all precincts.

    2) Original Democrat sign-in or signature books used in the June 3 primary in all precincts.

    3) Original poll books used in the June 24 runoff for U.S. Senate in all precincts.

    4) Original Republican sign-in or signature books used in the June 24 U.S. Senate runoff in all precincts.

    5) Original envelopes for all absentee ballots (counted or not) submitted for the June 24 runoff.

    6) Original applications for all absentee ballots (counted or not) submitted for the June 24 runoff.

    7) Original receipts/tapes generated by electronic voting machines.

    8) Original chain of custody log for all election materials/boxes from the June 3 primary and June 24 primary runoff.

    9) Original poll managers/precinct managers certificate of precinct results from the June 24 runoff for all precincts.

    10) Original ballot inventor (or chain of custody) receipts from the June 24 runoff.

    11) Original of any tally list, count, or inventory made or performed by poll managers, county executive committee or the circuit clerk of votes cast (including affidavit, absentee, other paper or voting mating) in the June 24 primary runoff.

    12) The original of any printed list of Democrat voters given to poll workers during the June 24 primary runoff.

    13) All absentee ballots cast in the June 24 primary runoff.