[ale] [OT] ACTION ALERT: Vote Fraud -- Legislation to Restore Legitimate Elections to Georgia
aaron
aaron at pd.org
Tue Apr 27 09:55:38 EDT 2004
(please distribute freely and generously)
================================
For all receiving this who have been promoting democracy with phone calls and
faxes to the Georgia General Assembly in support of SB500 and Voter Verified
Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) legislation, Thank you! Your efforts have helped
immensely, and you should know that this campaign to restore legitimate
elections to Georgia and our Nation is continuing.
Some very recent and related good news is that the California voting system
panel has unanimously recommended immediate de-certification of all Diebold
paperless electronic voting systems in that State. The panel is also
recommending that California consider taking criminal actions against Diebold
for violating certification requirement laws, just as the company did in
Georgia when they ran our entire 2002 Statewide General elections on
uncertified software.
<http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63191,00.html?tw=wn_story_top5>
The better news is that the persistent efforts of the Georgia Voter Choice
Coalition and supporters like you have succeeded in greatly raising awareness
of electronic voting issues throughout the 2004 Georgia General Assembly.
Many supportive allies were gained and many disinformed elected
representatives were alerted to the massive threats to our election process
posed by the Diebold corporate carpetbaggers and privatized, paperless
electronic voting. We not only succeeded in having a version of our Voter
Verified Paper Audit Trail legislation passed by the State Senate, but a
restored version of our VVPAT legislation came very close to passage in the
House as well.
The best news is that we may get to try again! Georgia's Governor has vetoed
the 2004 General Assembly budget and has scheduled a special session that
will commence on May 3rd! Our IMMEDIATE challenge is to inundate Georgia
Governor Sonny Perdue with LETTERS, FAXES, PHONE CALLS and EMAILS urging him
to put critical VVPAT Voting System Upgrade legislation of SB500 onto the
Special Session calendar!!
The Honorable Sonny Perdue
Governor, State of Georgia
203 State Capitol
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
Voice: 404-656-1776
Fax: 404-657-7332
Please express your support for Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail. Let the
Governor know your disappointment in the deceptive, secretive handling of our
voting systems by Secretary of State Cathy Cox and the 2004 Georgia General
Assembly.
With your encouragement, the Georgia Voter Choice Coalition is fully prepared
to overcome the challenges of the legislative process, as evidenced by our
many accomplishments and successes to date. For the enlightening background
on our efforts in the Georgia General Assembly, I offer the complete details
of our battles in the following:
======
Due to the efforts and experience of Hugh Esco of the Georgia Green Party,
the Georgia Voter Coalition and its ally citizen organizations, Senate
sponsors were enlisted to put forth two separate bills in the 2004 Georgia
General Assembly which mandated restoration of a Voter Verified Paper Audit
Trail (VVPAT) to our State elections.
Nadine Thomas (D-S10) sponsored SB340, which not only mandated VVPAT
but Open Source election software. Senator Tom Price (R,56), sponsored SB500,
which added the critical VVPAT element, though limiting it's application to
cases of election challenges or recounts.
After a little back door prodding from the Secretray of State's office, Nadine
Thomas fully abandoned her marginal, lukewarm advocacy for SB340 [see the
article on Nadine Thomas at <http://www.countthevote.org> ].
Senator Price, however, remained active in promoting SB500 throughout the
process, starting with work to make sure the bill cleared it's first process
hurdle and was heard in the Senate's State and Local Government Operations
Committee, chaired by Rene? Unterman (R,45).
Despite extensive, lop sided lobbying through lie and factual omission by the
Cathy Cox consortium, an amended substitute of SB500 was unanimously approved
by a five member quorum of the SLOGO Committee. The disappointing amendment of
the approved substitute was that the required implementation date was pushed
back from October 2004 to July, 2006... though this was a problem that could
be repaired with subsequent amendment opportunities in the process.
The next hurdle was to get on the Senate calendar, and time was becoming
critical. Fortunately, Tom Price, the enlisted SB500 sponsor, is also
co-chair of the Senate Rules committee. This position helped ensure that his
"controversial" SB500 legislation made it on to the Senate calendar for Day
33, the last Assembly session day when bills passed by one arm of the
Assembly can cross over for consideration in the other.
The VVPAT bill wound up about halfway down the over-subscribed crossover day
calendar and was called to the Senate Floor around 4pm. It sparked a lot of
"controversial" debate, including two Democrat sponsored motions to table the
bill among the many political maneuvers that spanned nearly 2 hours.
Senator George Hooks (D-S14) finally closed down discuission by successfully
attaching an extremely hostile amendment to SB500, one which shackled audit
trail implementation to the vague neverday schedule and highly uncertain
future of the Bush regime's unfunded Federal Election Assistance Commission.
Once hobbled by the hostile Hooks amendment, SB500 passed the Senate in a 52
to 3 vote.
While the Hooks attachment was a notable hindrance, the Senate passage remains
a major victory, and the volunteer Voter Choice lobbyists proudly carried the
injured SB500 across to the House. We immediately began building on
possibilities for the bill's restoration and reconsideration through the rest
of the process. Unfortunately, the Dixie-crat controlled House proved MUCH
more politically stunted and inexcusably opposed to the restoration of our
democracy.
Our Voter Choice coalition heavily lobbied the members of the Government
Affairs Committee and its Elections sub-committee for a hearing of SB500. We
were highly certain that our lobbying and education efforts had gained the
committee votes needed to win approval of the bill, and we had additionally
secured sponsors in the House for removing the hostile amendments and
implementation delays.
With an attitude that can only be described as ultimately arrogant and
ignorant, the Elections sub-committee Chair, Buddy DeLoach (D-H127)
refused to allow any kind of public hearing on the bill. Nor would he even sit
privately to hear the many facts refuting the Cathy Cox litany of lies which
he had been programmed to repeat. His rant was the same redundant, deceitful
Diebold marketing script that we heard puked forth by almost every Democrat
we spoke with in the entire State (including U.S. Senator Denise Majette when
the issue was presented to her as an opening question for one her recent
public campaign meetings in March).
But the Voter Choice Coalition wasn't about to a disinformed puppet like
DeLoach stop democracy, no matter how many meetings he cancelled (including
last minute cancellations of scheduled 4/1 and 4/2 committee meetings, which
effectively burned up days 37, 38 and 39 of the legislative session). Facing
the inexcusably obstinate DeLoach blockades and with day 40 approaching,
measures were also being taken to attach VVPAT to another legislative vehicle
pending before the House.
Late in the morning of Tuesday, 4/6, the final "business" day before the day
40 final session and a time when only some of the Assembly members are at
their Capitol offices, we learned that a meeting of the House Government
Affairs committee was scheduled for 3pm that afternoon. We were present and
prepared, hoping the committee would call either the original SB500 _or_
SB153 for consideration.
SB153 (originally sponsored by SLOGO Chair Renee Unterman) was election
related legislation intended to restrict persons convicted of vote fraud from
serving as poll workers or election officials, and was the most promising and
appropriate vehicle for our VVPAT language. In response to stonewalling of
DeLoach, we had enlisted a cooperative ally on the Elections sub-committee,
Douglas Dean (D-H49), to put forth the original, restored VVPAT voting
system printer requirements (with Oct. 2004 dates) as an amendment to SB153.
Five members of our coalition crowded into the office of Government Affairs
committee Chairman Allan Powell (D-H23 ), curiously just as Cathy Cox was
leaving. We were there to witness the (standing room only) meeting of a
minimal quorum of committee members. Representative Dean was conspicuously
absent and later claimed that he had not been informed of the meeting; none
of our members had been able to locate and alert him, though it turned out he
was only 20 yards away in another office. As might be predicted, SB500 was
denied consideration again, but SB153 was heard so that another committee
member could tack on some less relevant amendments. Our Voter Choice
Coalition leader, Hugh Esco (Green Party coordinator), spoke up and asked
that the Dean VVPAT amendment also be considered, but the committee refused
to entertain such motions from the public. Still, the good news was that
SB153 was approved, passed on to House rules and was subsequently placed on
the day 40 calendar late in the afternoon of the final day; our VVPAT
amendment still had a rolling vehicle that it could ride on.
Several members of Voter Choice coalition, plus several new allies we had
recruited at the capitol, worked tirelessly throughout day 40 gaining VVPAT
amendment support, informing the legislators with factual information about
the paper ballot printout options and (we believe) gaining majority support
for our legislation on the House floor.
SB153 was indeed called to the House floor within the last few hours of the
final day, but when Senator Dean presented the VVPAT amendment to Speaker
Terry Coleman (D-H118), Coleman insanely declared that legislation to
prevent election fraud was "not germane" to a bill addressing election fraud!
Without further adieu, the Machiavellian machinations of Secretary of State
Cathy Cox insured that issues critical to the very core of our democracy were
not to be allowed the democracy of an actual vote. (The Secretary wasted her
entire day's tax payer provided salary running back and forth between the
House and Senate lobbying against auditable, legitimate elections.)
For reasons still unknown but easily deduced, Senator Dean failed to
challenge the twisted and absurd ruling from Speaker Coleman, so the return
of legitimate, publicly audited elections to the State of Georgia was sadly
thwarted by Cathy Cox and her Dixiecrats shortly before the close of the 2004
Georgia Assembly session.
...though again...
The good news is that the persistent efforts of the Georgia Voter Choice
Coalition and supporters like you have succeeded in greatly raising awareness
of electronic voting issues throughout the 2004 Georgia General Assembly.
Many supportive allies were gained and many disinformed elected
representatives were alerted to the massive threat to our election process
being presented by the Diebold corporate carpetbaggers and privatized,
paperless electronic voting. We not only succeeded in having a version of our
Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail legislation passed by the State Senate, but
a restored version of our VVPAT legislation came very close to passage in the
House as well.
The best news is that we may get to try again! Georgia's Governor has vetoed
the 2004 General Assembly budget and has scheduled a special session that
will commence on May 3rd! Our IMMEDIATE challenge is to inundate Georgia
Governor Sonny Perdue with LETTERS, FAXES and PHONE CALLS urging him to put
critical VVPAT Voting System Upgrade legislation of SB500 onto the Special
Session calendar!!
The Honorable Sonny Perdue
Governor, State of Georgia
203 State Capitol
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
Voice: 404-656-1776
Fax: 404-657-7332
===========================================================
This document was compiled and composed with the generous assistance
of members of the League Opposed to Virtual Elections, Count The Vote, the
Georgia Green Party, Georgians Against Black Box Voting and the Voter
Independence Project.
If you would like to learn more about this important issue and what you
can do to restore the integrity and transparency of elections thoughout our
nation, please visit any of the following sites:
http://www.voterchoice.org/auditableballots.php
http://www.verifiedvoting.com/
http://www.countthevote.org/
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/
http://www.voteamericavote.com/krugman.html
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/hava/hava.html
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