The problem is Cathy 'diebold' cox:
my associated information; if you follow out: 'countthevote.org' it will take you to a good site that all Georgians should become familiar with
item 1
This first link has links to newspaper articles: On both you can obtain searches specific to a state:
http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp?sort=date&selectstate=GA&sel ectproblemtype=ALL
The second link is associated with more detail information, best I can tell: This is known generally as "EIRS": Election INcident Reporting System:
https://voteprotect.org/epc/index.php?display=EIRMapState&state=Georgia&cat= ALL&tab=ALL
This latter site has now over 800 incidents in GA of voting irregularities of all types: twice as much as NC, for instance.
Fulton has 66 incidents notes as of 11.20; Clayton has over 250 as of 11.20
marsha hammond, phd: e mail: hammondmv@netzero.com: cell phone: 404 964 5338
cc: Cathy Cox: Secretary of State
item 2:
What we do know is that Diebold's chief lobbyist in Georgia just happened to be Lewis Massey, former Secretary of State -- and the former boss of Cathy Cox."
http://www.americanpolitics.com/20040524Wright.htmlMeet Cathy Diebold
by Denis Wright
May 23, 2004 (apj.us) -- Georgia's Secretary of State, Cathy Cox, could easily be considered the official Poster Girl for Diebold Election Systems, Inc.
Her photo appears on their website alongside a glowing quotation praising them to the skies. She also loaned them the Georgia State Seal, for that "official" look. And she is defending the implementation of Direct Record Electronic (DRE) voting machines, more commonly known as touch screen voting, in the face of overwhelming evidence of security flaws and unreliable performance.
There have now been at least five major studies regarding problems with DRE devices, all of them are severely critical of Diebold. Maryland even hired an independent group to investigate; they hacked into the system and were changing votes within ten minutes. Thousands of computer experts have signed a petition, sponsored by Dr. David Dill of Stanford University, demanding a voter verified paper ballot. There is currently legislation winding its way through Capitol Hill that will mandate back-up paper ballots on every DRE machine. And California's Secretary of State recently decertified Diebold's DRE machines in that state, noting that the company was "banned, decertified, fraudulent, despicable, and deceitful" in their dealings with the state.
What has been the response from Cathy Cox?
We don't know.
She and her office have remained virtually silent on the subject -- except for actively lobbying the State Houses in opposition to a voter-verified paper ballot.
After the 2000 election debacle, Georgia invited vendors to submit proposals to take over the state's voting system -- but those bids, and the deliberations and decisions of the committee in charge of recommendations, were intentianally exempt from Georgia's "Open Records" laws.
So how do we as citizens of Georgia know how Diebold was selected from the eight bidders?
We don't. What we do know is that Diebold's chief lobbyist in Georgia just happened to be Lewis Massey, former Secretary of State -- and the former boss of Cathy Cox.
Governor Sonny Purdue was asked about the issue on live television via C-SPAN and said that he was concerned about the reports and would support a review of the Georgia voting machines.
So what were the results of the inquiry?
There were no results. Kathy Rogers, Director of the Elections Division, claims that they never received an official demand from Purdue's office, therefore no comprehensive review was required. Instead they promised to hold a series of "Public Forums" on the issue. When concerns were raised about the security of the machines attendees were told that the Secretary of State was "remaining neutral" on the scandal, and would not be addressing any of the concerns. After two such "Forums" the remainder were promptly cancelled.
There are serious reasons to believe that the 2002 election in Georgia was not legal, for several important reasons. First of all, according to SB 213, which was state law prior to November 2002, any election system purchased and used by the state of Georgia "shall be required to have an independent audit trail for each vote cast."
The Diebold machines provide none.
Secondly, there's the issue of mandatory certification and the mysterious software updates (dubbed "patches") that were installed just prior to the 2002 election.
When I first heard that a folder called "rob-georgia" was found on an unsecure FTP site run by Diebold, I was intrigued. I wrote to Cathy Cox's office and was told by staffer Kara Sinkule that "We were aware of the Diebold FTP site, but Georgia never used it." Later, after Rob Behler (of "rob-georgia" fame) was located and confirmed the fact that he had indeed downloaded and installed software patches from the FTP site, patches which he believed to be uncertified, Ms. Sinkule wrote me that "The patch prior to being installed was examined by the state's certification experts at KSU and discussed with the national testing labs." Later still, when asked, Cathy Cox claimed that the patch was only examined after the election due to time constraints.
Further, I requested copies of any and all certification documents for the soft and firmware on Georgia's voting machines and was told by SoS lawyer Clifford Datum that "no records exist in the Secretary of State's office regarding a certification letter from the lab certifying the version of software used on Election Day." That certification is required by state and federal law.
Cathy Cox is widely known to be the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for the Gubernatorial race in 2006 and, as such, is being sheltered and protected by state Democrats. Jay Bookman, a progressive Associate Editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has refused to acknowledge the problem, and goes out of his way to ridicule concerned citizens via email. Martha Ezzard, another longtime AJ-C Op/Ed staple, wrote an opinion piece that could have easily been written by Diebold's PR staff. When confronted with the glaring errors in her article Ezzard said she was "just poking some fun at California" over their chaotic recall election and casually dismissed concerns about spreading misinformation.
Inexplicably, the use of unreliable, unsecure voting machines is being defended by the very people who should be defending our right to have our votes counted. According to a statement on the SoS website, "The mission of the Elections Division is to implement and ensure fair and legal voter registration and elections in accordance with state laws." But clearly our recent elections have NOT been conducted according to state law, nor is there any way whatsoever to determine that the elections have been "fair".
Here in Georgia, we will be voting under a cloud of suspicion and unease that grows with each additional study of the Diebold equipment. Nearly every computer security expert in the country says voting electronically without a voter verified paper trail, and without a meaningful way to recount votes, is a terribly flawed method just begging for trouble.
Citizens have fought and died for democracy and the right to vote. Cathy Cox owes the citizens of Georgia a duty. She must immediately stop stonewalling the citizens, and correct the flawed voting mechanism she purchased with our money. A method for obtaining a voter verified paper ballot must be added to the equipment before the next election, so that every vote counts, and every vote is counted.
Denis Wright is a computer artist and cofounder of
http://countthevote.org.item 3:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=146x818Not sure how many of you have seen this (email) :
Dear Democrats:
The Georgia Republican Party has been illegally sending absentee ballot applications that are attached to political advertising. Georgia law very clearly states that this is illegal. And, according to their financial disclosure, the Georgia GOP has been willing to spend at least $140,000 on this illegal activity.
We need your help. Please send this to you friends and to your listservs. Please write letters to your local papers. Please tell folks that the Georgia Republican Party is obviously using illegal tactics to try and win the election. They knew they were breaking the law, they did it anyway, and they should be fined substantially.
The following is a letter Bobby Kahn sent October 5, 2004 to the Georgia State Election Board in regards to this serious elections violation by the Georgia Republican Party.
October 5, 2004
The Hon. Cathy Cox
Chair, State Election Board
Mrs. Frances S. Duncan
J. Randolph Evans, Esq.
Mrs. Eunice Mixon
David J. Worley, Esq.
Re: Major Violation of the Georgia Election Code by the Georgia Republican Party
Dear Members of the Georgia State Elections Board:
It has come to my attention that the Georgia Republican Party has committed a major violation of the Georgia Election Code. The Augusta Chronicle reported on Saturday, October 2, 2004 that the Georgia Republican Party has sent out a campaign mailing that combines political advertising with an absentee ballot application.
O.C.G.A. § 21-2-381 (a) (3) clearly makes this mailing illegal. It states: “No application for an official absentee ballot that is physically attached to a publication that advocates for or against a particular candidate, issue, political party, or political body shall be distributed by any person, entity, or organization.”
Our understanding is that this law was enacted by the General Assembly to specifically outlaw this activity after the Georgia Republican Party sent a similar mailing during the 2000 campaign. The Georgia Republican Party has specifically and deliberately chosen to ignore that statute. It is obvious that they will continue to engage in this illegal activity until the State Election Board sends them a message that seeking advantage by violating Georgia election law will not be tolerated. In fact, after being presented with the law by The Augusta Chronicle, Georgia Republican Party spokesman Marty Klein said they would continue doing this illegal behavior until told otherwise.
Per O.C.G.A. § 21-2-33.1 (a) (2), the State Election Board has the authority to fine the Georgia Republican Party up to $5,000 per violation, and we assert that each piece of mail sent to a voter is a separate violation. In addition, it is clear from the Georgia Republican Party Financial Disclosure for September 30, 2004, that they are investing heavily in this illegal activity, having spent $123,500 to mail the absentee ballot applications and $18,187 for auto calls regarding their mailing. This illegal mailing is a major violation of the Election Code, as indicated by both the likely number of pieces sent and its cost. Since the law was changed so recently as a result of their actions, they knew what they were doing was wrong. The integrity of our elections and the credibility of State Election Board demand a substantial penalty for this activity.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Bobby Kahn
Chairman
Democratic Party of Georgia
cc: Linda W. Beazley
Director of Elections
Office of the Secretary of State
item 4:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x63750#63779November 20
In Georgia where we have nothing but
Diebold touchscreen voting technology (with optiscan with Diebold code for absentee ballots), at the precinct, poll workers keep track of the head count as people come in to vote. Every hour the head count is recorded. The touchscreen machines have a running total of ballots cast. Every hour these totals are recorded. At the end of the day, the tapes (like cash register tapes) are run off with the total ballots cast for each candidate. Three poll workers sign the tapes. The memory cards from each touchscreen are fed into one of the voting stations that has been designated as the "accumulator". 3 print outs of totals from all the machines are then printed. One is posted for public viewing on the door of the precinct.
This year, some of the precincts did head counts on computer databases, which could easily be altered if someone wanted to make the head count figures agree with the vote totals. For those precincts, this new procedure took away the paper record of the head counts -- SOS Cathy Cox is always finding new ways to keep us from being able to audit the vote.
The memory cards from all the machines are taken to the county elections office, where they are fed into a server and the counts are then transmitted via telephone line to the main elections office server(s). I haven't seen this part of the process in person.
Cox no longer posts the precinct totals on the SOS website, so we have no way to check to see if things are off, like we could with the Florida and Ohio (and other state) elections.
Since Cox brought in Diebold, Democrats in Georgia have lost everything. First the governor's seat, then Max Cleland's senate seat, now the Georgia House.
item 5
Marsha V. Hammond, PhD: Licensed Psychologist
5
e mail: hammondmv@netzero.com
Dear Ms. Cox:
I continue to be hopeful that you will do something about the Diebold machines in GA. We need paper trails. We need transparent process. We need bipartisan overviewing of elections and all the processes associated with such.
Of interest to you, perhaps, is this information about a voting machines salesperson who has recently had interaction with Georgia Election Officials. Indeed, he sponsored a conference: Mr. O'Day.
He is a convicted felon re: these matters:
This all came to a head in 1998:
A voting machine salesman and repairman admitted earlier this week that
they gave Culp more than $134,000 since 1990 in bribes and kickbacks as
rewards for county business. Ed O'Day, 63, of Columbia, S.C., and Gene
Barnes, 64, of Stuarts Draft, Va., entered guilty pleas Tuesday.
They and Culp will be sentenced later this summer, the U.S. Attorney's
Office said.
Culp pleaded guilty to accepting 122 bribes from O'Day and Barnes and
to three counts of mail fraud stemming from his operation of the Mecklenburg
Elections Tabulation Service, which provided news organizations with
unofficial election night results. He allegedly double-billed the county and
news outlets, pocketing $21,131 between December 1994, and January 1998.
O'Day is president of United American Election Supply Co. and was also
an independent sales representative for MicroVote of Indianapolis. He sold
Mecklenburg County more than $6 million in voting machines since 1994.
Barnes, who serviced the county's voting machines for more than 30
years, raised his prices so Culp could get a kickback of $25 per machine
repaired, authorities alleged.
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http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:NwH8bDSNIwcJ:www.pdxnorml.org/980725.html+%22Ed+O%27Day%22&hl=en Here he is again, Ms. Cox.
19th Georgia Election Officials Association
May 16-19, 2004
Held at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government
"Hospitality Suite provided by: United American Election Supply Co.
Ed O'Day, President
http://216.239.51.104/searchq=cache:zVqc0Xs0HHoJ:www.cviog.uga.edu/training/geoa2004.pdf+%22Ed+O%27Day%22&hl=en Do Georgia Election Officials know that they are rubbing elbows with a convicted briber?
THERE'S MORE; IF I SEE INTEREST I WILL BRING OUT THE REST OF RIDICULOUSNESS
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