|
February 4, 2010 - See Complaints tab for latest press releases related to complaints
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 4, 2010
Appointment by Georgia Governor Raises Serious Questions
ATLANTA, GA – Citizen volunteers with VoterGA, an E-Voting rights group, announced today that they are questioning the appointment by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue of Shawn LaGrua to a judgeship in the Superior Court of the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. LaGrua most recently was the Inspector General (IG) for former Secretary of State (SOS) Karen Handel, now a Republican candidate for Governor. The IG’s office is responsible for investigating complaints filed with the State Election Board (SEB), chaired by the SOS. The office also has widespread power to initiate elections-related investigations, gather data, and report probable violations to the Attorney General for prosecution.
The Governor’s appointment was announced just days after his office confirmed receipt and proper distribution of a letter from VoterGA to the Governor noting recently filed complaints from three citizens against LaGrua’s IG office. These complaints allege improper or politically motivated investigations that effectively suppressed electronic voting defects and controversies.
One citizen’s complaint stated that the IG’s office “lost” his written request to investigate the $54 million acquisition of Diebold voting equipment in 2002, after the IG’s office confirmed repeatedly that his request was received. Another citizen asserted that the IG opened an investigation into voting machine problems revealed in a controversial 2005 referendum, based on grievances he expressed at an SEB public meeting, but then closed it without ever contacting him. A third individual, an elections employee, was referred by the IG to the Attorney General for charges, after voting machines added 947 test votes into 2008 election results and procedures were not followed by this employee’s Supervisor.
David Chastain, a citizen who filed one of the complaints against LaGrua for mishandling an investigation into the controversial 2005 Cobb County tax referendum, explained: “The judicial appointment of an Inspector General, who herself is under investigation for multiple instances of improperly handled cases, makes me question the entire justice system of Georgia.”
VoterGA further contended that Perdue’s appointment of an individual who allegedly covered up voting machine flaws is even more questionable given that his own election in 2002 was considered a landmark upset involving the first use of unverifiable statewide voting in the country. The Kennesaw State University professor who oversaw testing of the machines for that election has acknowledged in a deposition under oath that:
the voting machines received a software patch prior to the 2002 election;
the patch could have impacted “most anything”;
applying a software patch requires machines be tested and recertified prior to use;
no recertification was performed;
failure to recertify the equipment was in violation of the law.
National attention was drawn to upsets of favored incumbents in the 2002 Georgia elections. Issues with Georgia’s electronic voting machines that lack independent audit trails have continued to draw scrutiny from watchdog groups throughout America. All other states have moved to replace equipment similar to that used in Georgia and several states have also filed lawsuits against the vendor. Georgia is the only state still planning to use such equipment statewide in 2010.
# # #
Interview Contact: Garland Favorito
Telephone: (404) 664-4044
Email: garlandf@msn.com
http://www.voterga.org
___
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 28, 2009
Governor Asked to Appoint Secretary of State Who Is Independent of Major Parties and Voting Machine Lobbyist
ATLANTA, GA – A voting rights group announced today that it has sent a letter to Governor Sonny Perdue, stating what may be critical qualifications for the new Secretary of State (SOS) he will appoint. The group, Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia, is a diverse, non-partisan, technology neutral, coalition of Georgia voters and organizations. They contend that the new secretary “should be independent of both major political parties” and “have no direct or indirect ties with the voting machine vendor lobbyist, Massey and Bowers.” They believe that the lobbyist “has been allowed to exercise undue influence and control over the office of the Secretary of State for the last 8 years to benefit the vendor.”
The letter cites examples for both the current and previous secretaries. It explains that in 2002 despite numerous warnings, SOS Cathy Cox, entered into an agreement to purchase $54 million in voting equipment from Diebold Election Systems while her former boss, Lewis Massey was a lobbyist for the vendor. The group also contends that the equipment did not have an independent audit trail of each vote cast as required by law at the time. Since then, the equipment has been the subject of intense national scrutiny and ridicule. Diebold recently spun off the division, renamed it Premier Election Systems and is attempting to sell it to ES&S.
In addition, the group’s letter, posted on the VoterGA.org home page, mentions how current Secretary of State, Karen Handel, has flip flopped on the need for voter verification, audit capabilities and true recounts after being elected as Secretary of State in 2006 with help from the Bowers family of Massey & Bowers. She appointed former Massey & Bowers partner, Rob Simms, as her deputy.
Gov. Perdue must appoint a new secretary to fill out the remaining term of Sec. Handel, who resigned last Tuesday to run fulltime for Governor. She announced her resignation immediately after the media was informed that three citizens had filed complaints against her Inspector General’s office for improperly investigating cases involving voting equipment defects or controversies
Interview Contact: Garland Favorito
Telephone: (404) 664-4044
Email: garlandf@msn.com
http://www.voterga.org
###
December 3, 2009
GA Mayoral Recounts Can’t Change E-Voting Results
ATLANTA, GA – Razor thin victory margins of less than 1% in the Atlanta and Roswell mayoral contests have candidates considering whether or not to exercise their right to a recount but state election experts have some bad news for them. These same experts have already testified under oath in recent voting rights case depositions that recounts have no bearing on Georgia’s electronic vote totals.
When former Kennesaw State University Center of Elections Director, Ray Cobb, was asked: “Has any recount in Georgia ever produced different electronic vote totals than the original count?” he replied: “Not to my knowledge.” Kennesaw State Professor Emeritus, Britain Williams, who oversaw certification tests for the machines that are used today, explained why. ”There are two voting systems that will give you the exact same answer on a recount as they do on the original count and that's an electronic voting system and a lever machine.” His comments are correct at least for Georgia’s voting machines that were purchased in 2002 for over $54 million dollars amid major controversy.
Georgia machines do not have standard Voter Verified Paper Ballot Audit Trails that have been available, installed and used to conduct elections in other states since 2002. During a recount they rely exclusively on a PCMCIA memory card that voters give to poll workers after the voting machine places votes on it. When Mr. Cobb was asked: “Do you know the format of the records of votes cast as stored in the memory cards used by those voting machines?” he replied: “I do not.” Therefore, no voter, nor even the state’s expert witness, can determine exactly what is on any of the memory cards that voters turned over to the custody of the poll workers.
Current Georgia law exempts electronic votes from being recounted by instead allowing them to be “recanvassed,” a word that is not even listed in English dictionaries. Mr. Cobb explained the difference: For Georgia’s electronic voting machines, “The recount starts with the PCMCIA card.” and “the voter cannot see the electronic bits.” When a standard recount of any ballot is conducted, Mr. Cobb explained that: “It starts with the ballot rather than the card.” In other words, a “recanvass” only accumulates the same previously unverifiable results again from memory cards that cannot be verified by the voter in the first place.
Voting rights plaintiffs have charged that such a procedure subverts the intent of a recount provided to candidates under Georgia law. They also claim that it violates equal protection rights of both Georgia and U.S. Constitutions because Election Day voters are not afforded full recount protections that are provided to absentee voters. In September, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected these arguments. Presiding Justice, George Carley, ruled that: "In deciding to forego the privilege of voting early on a paper ballot, voters assume the risk of necessarily different procedures if a recount is required."
The ruling did not address the arguments that voters who expect standard audit and recount protection may not know where to go to get an absentee ballot, how to get one, when to get it, where to submit the ballot and how to submit it. Georgia voters and candidates now have little recourse other than though federal court which would likely adhere more closely to U.S. Supreme Court case law. The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously subjected ballot counting and recounting to strict scrutiny under which such a risk that jeopardizes the fundamental right of voting would not likely be tolerated.
Interview Contact: Garland Favorito
Telephone: (404) 664-4044
Email: garlandf@msn.com
http://www.voterga.org
###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Voting Machine Defects Could Sway GA 2009 Runoffs
ATLANTA, GA – November 16 – E-Voting rights activists cited today two separate voting machine defects that could impact several of the upcoming 2009 Georgia runoffs. One defect involves an inability of the machines to prevent casting totally blank voted ballots. John Fortuin, co-founder of Defenders of Democracy, explained: “Many voters are not as proficient with using the equipment as they would be with marking paper ballots. The voting machine vendor could have easily programmed a warning to voters that their ballot is blank before it is cast. Officials may try to claim that is not a defect, but ensuring entry of required data is a must for integrity.”
Activists also noted a defect where voting machines can cast a ballot without voter consent when voters do not release the Next screen button quickly enough after completing their selections. The Cast Ballot button on the Summary screen is in the same location as the Next button on previous screens and it will activate without a separate click. The voting software does not employ standard “speed bump” technology that would prevent voters from traversing through the Summary screen and casting the ballot without ever clicking on the Cast Ballot button.
The defects first widely surfaced in a controversial Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendum held during 2005 in Cobb County. In that contest, 285 blank voted ballots were cast by voters but the SPLOST referendum was the only item on the ballot. The referendum was decided by only 114 votes out of 39,780 votes cast. Over one billion dollars in new taxes were then assessed, the majority of which is being paid by Cobb County residents. That contest was also plagued by unexplained modem transmission difficulties, reporting delays and a shift in preliminary results that took the SPLOST from apparent defeat to a razor thin victory.
The Secretary of State’s Inspector General (IG) office recently conducted an investigation into the SPLOST referendum but did not examine the anomalies and never notified the complainant, David Chastain. The IG office recommended that the State Election Board close the case during its October 2009 meeting, but did not explain why 285 voters would go to the polls, check in, get a memory card, access a machine and then not vote “Yes” or “No” for the only ballot choice.
David Chastain remarked: “I am appalled that the IG office opened an investigation into my complaints without ever contacting me for details on all the improprieties that could have been the result of vote tampering. Furthermore, the defects may well have been the determining factor in a billion dollar sales tax assessment for all of us who live in Cobb County.”
Like the 2005 Cobb County SPLOST, several 2009 Georgia runoffs have only one race on the ballot, thus making the ballot more vulnerable to inadvertent blank voting. Many counties are performing “logic and accuracy testing” for the runoffs this week but Mr. Fortuin explained that: “The public is banned from hands-on access during testing and cannot confirm that the machines are fit for service. The testing is minimal, and there are unresolved defects still inherent in the machines since they were purchased in 2002 at a cost to taxpayers of over $54 million”. He concluded that it would be safer for voters to obtain absentee ballots through county election offices if they know how and then, vote using those ballots.
Media Contact: Garland Favorito
Telephone: (404) 664-4044
Email: garlandf@msn.com
http://www.voterga.org
###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Citizens Assail GA Supreme Court Voting Decision
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"
|
