Update on Georgia e-vote lawsuit

Although this tale is highly complicated, it's well worth your close attention, if you're concerned about the status of electoral democracy in the US, and the possibility of saving it.

Some would say that Georgia is Ground Zero of Bush/Cheney's grand subversion of our voting system. (Others would say the same of Arizona.) The situation there has been especially dismal since Election Day, 2002, when Sen. Max Cleland and Gov. Roy Barnes were both robbed of their victories--a theft for which, by now, there is abundant

solid evidence.

And yet the Democratic Party (Cleland and Barnes included) continues to look steadfastly away from what went down there. Remember President-elect Obama's big speech in Chicago's Grant Park? Remember his inspiring tale of Annie Hooper Nixon, the old

Georgia woman whose forebears toiled in chains, yet who, that very day, had cast her ballot as a free American? Presumably, of course, she'd cast her vote for him-- and yet it's just as likely that her ballot counted for McCain, since Annie Nixon voted electronically,

on a voting machine devised and operated by Diebold/Premier.

Although Obama was aware that she had cast an electronic vote (he ringingly invoked the moment "when she put her finger on that button"), he either somehow didn't know, or simply doesn't care, (a) that Diebold/Premier had from the start been owned and run by Christianist Republicans, and (b) had, early in the decade, signed a secret deal with Georgia's SoS (Cathy Cox, a "moderate" Democrat) to manage most elections in the Peach State, where elections had, therefore, been largely privatized.

So, with "Democrats" like that--i.e., not only Cathy Cox, but Cleland and Obama and the rest of them--who needs "Republicans"? Both parties have long been complicit in the theft of our elections, even if the Democrats' collusion has been passive.

Therefore it's especially encouraging to know that there's a busy grass-roots movement to reclaim electoral democracy in Georgia (as there is in so many other states). Those of us who care about all this--generally non-partisans--must therefore try to keep abreast of what that movement's trying to do, and what it's done, against all odds.

MCM

VoterGA Supporters,

We are collecting funds to move key elements of our case to federal jurisdiction and consolidate new evidence we have collected with it. However, during this process we have not been idle. Last week three separate complaints from three different citizens were filed against the office of the Inspector General for Secretary of State (SOS), Karen Handel. The office, led by Shawn Lagrua, also investigates cases for the State Election Board (SEB). The complaints that were with the State Inspector General contend that the office improperly conducted investigations involving electronic voting machine controversies thus suppressing the controversies as a result of flawed investigations.

The three investigations in question, all detailed in the Complaints section of the www.voterga.org web site, are:

First is theincredible case of long time voting machine technician, Laura Gallegos, who many believe is being wrongfully charged by the IG office to cover-up certification violations committed by her Lowndes Co. supervisor in the 2008 general election. Chairperson Handel and the SEB will not allow Laura and supporters to present the evidence she has collected ina SEB hearing so that she can try to clear herself before incurring thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend deceptively false charges.

Second is the 2005 Cobb County SPLOST tax referendum investigation that was shut down by the Secretary's IG office without addressing any of the voting machine controversies that occurred during that referendum. The IGoffice opened an investigation based on comments at a January 2009 SEB meeting from David Chastain but never contacted him to gather hiscomplaints about the election tabulation process. His letter outlines the list of questions that the investigation should have answered.

Third is the "lost" January, 2009 VoterGA complaint. The IG office had confirmedthey received the complaint since February of 2009 but they would not provide a status or acknowledgement of it. After Garland Favorito wrote a formal letter to the SEB member in October requesting a response, Inspector General Lagruareplied in Decemberthatthe officecould not locate the complaint.This complaint involved allegations of illegal acquisition and certification for $54 million in voting machine equipment that is currently being used in Georgia.

Please pay particularly close attention to the Laura Gallegos case and read the documentation at the VoterGA.org Complaint section if you have time. The link is:

I have spent an hour and a half with her and am convinced that she did not so much as even make a mistake. I will report more on this case later as it develops.

We will be raising these issues and more during the public comments time at the State Election Board meeting this Wednesday, December 16, at 10:00 am sharp. The meeting will take place in Room 512 of the West Tower in the Sloppy Floyd building at 2 MLK Dr. Atlanta Ga. 30334.

Please attend and speak or you can defer your time to myself or another speaker for up to one deferral per speaker. We need you there.

Thanks,

Garland

404 664-4044