As expected, Mississippi Republicans ignored the results of a tiebreaker won by Democratic state Rep. Bo Eaton and seated GOP challenger Mark Tullos in his stead. Eaton and Tullos had to participate in a game of chance after they each received 4,589 in last fall's election, with Eaton pulling the winning straw. But state House rules permitted Tullos to challenge the outcome—even without any basis—and since Republicans hold the chamber, they simply voted him in.
Tullos did make some claims for appearances' sake, and they were entirely bogus: He said five affidavit votes shouldn't count because voters had moved (yet still lived in the district) but failed to notify election officials. Those same officials didn't agree that this was a problem, though, since they certified the election results, as did the secretary of state. House Republicans certainly didn't care, though, since adding Tullos to their caucus gives them the three-fifths supermajority they need to rewrite tax laws without a single Democratic vote.
Eaton, understandably, sounded quite miffed, saying that the voters whose ballots the GOP belatedly decided to ignore had their rights "violated under the equal protection act of the U.S. Constitution." He also said that the "fair thing would be for them to call for another election" to coincide with the presidential primary on March 8. Talk like this suggests that perhaps Eaton is contemplating a lawsuit, but legislative bodies have wide discretion when it comes to choosing whom to seat in disputed elections, so it probably wouldn't be easy to win.