Defenders Of Democracy

Full Revised Report, 11/01/2006

This is just a partial list of lobbyist money this election cycle in Georgia through July.  Note that a partner with Diebold's lobbying firm, Robert Simms of Massey & Bowers LLC, has given at least $2500 to Handel, through July 2006.  While it appears as of July that Massey & Bowers LLC had not given anything to Buckner yet, it should be noted that Buckner has repeatedly made statements favoring Kathy Rogers, Georgia's Director of Elections, a devoted Diebold advocate.  Buckner's voting record for the legislative session this past year on bills and amendments to bring paper trails and auditing to Georgia was diametrically opposed to Defenders' positions. 

Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy has proved what Defenders of Democracy and our allies across the nation have been saying for years: Paperless voting creates the opportunity for undetectable vote fraud. 

While we have been saying that for years, based on widely-known computer knowledge, the researchers at Princeton have proved it, and proved it on one of the most commonly used paperless voting systems in the United States: the Diebold-TS, the voting machine used statewide in Georgia and Maryland, and in many counties in other states.  

Watch Princeton's Video of undetectable vote fraud being run on a Diebold -TS voting machine.

Read Princeton's Report.

What will you do to guarantee that your vote is accurately counted? 

Click here to sign up on our email list and join the thousands of members of Defenders of Democracy.  We will keep you informed on our campaigns to return democracy back to the United States.  We have several campaigns in progress to bring accountability to our election system, before, during, and after the November election. 
 

Full Report

For the August 8th runoff elections in Georgia, Defenders of Democracy conducted a parallel election at DeKalb County's Winnona Park precinct in Decatur.

The parallel election was conducted respectfully and in full compliance with State election law. The processes employed followed the registration, balloting and chain of custody practices required to ensure legitimate, verifiable and auditable results. Participating voters were formally qualified using a precinct poll book of official State voter registration records and they voted using paper ballots cast anonymously. Each voter deposited their ballot into a locked ballot box that remained in full public view at all times. All tabulation was conducted at the precinct site at the close of polls, again in full public view, with all procedures fully documented by paper records and video recordings. Tabulation was completed in a timely and orderly manner in accordance with accepted chain of custody requirements.

Secretary of State Cathy Cox misleads and deceives Georgia's State Senators on the State & Local Government Operations Committee (SLoGO).
Watch Part 1 of the Video above or by clicking here!  (4.75 minutes, from March 4, 2004).

Watch Part 2 of the video above or by clicking here! (4.25 minutes, from March 11, 2004).

Part 3 - Cox Surrogate Deceives Elections Oversight Committee.  (6.25 minutes, from Feb. 9, 2006, UPDATED 07/27/06).
Introduction: It's an election year, so Secretary Cox doesn't want to be seen giving misleading testimony to the Government Operations committee (SLoGO) on behalf of her buddy, Republican Secretary of State Candidate Bill Stephens.  Cox sends her Director of Elections, Kathy Rogers, to support Diebold Election Systems and Bill Stephens, and crush real election reform, all in one hearing.  Listen to Kathy Rogers mis-inform, deceive, and lie to committee members. Fear not, no computer science facts were allowed to de-rail the Diebold Election Systems train from its well -greased tracks.  Nor were Taxpayers consulted on this plan to keep the Diebold monopoly intact, and keep funds flowing thru Diebold to Cathy Cox's former boss, Diebold lobbyist Lewis Massey.

One hero emerges in the video as Senator Horacena Tate testifies on the history of electronic voting  in Georgia, and pulls no punches.  Senator Tate tells it like it is. Watch Part 3 of the Video above or by clicking here!

Coming Soon:

More deceptive testimony from Secretary Cox, Director of Elections Kathy Rogers, and Republican Secretary of State Candidate Bill Stephens.  What a team!

And the new documentary on our broken election system, The Right To Count, is now available.  Click here to order! (Note: This video is national in scope, AND covers Georgia thoroughly in the time allotted.)    

DVD's available of the above Election Deception video, parts 1-3 for $1 plus $3 S/H, send a check made out Defenders of Democracy, PO Box 808, Decatur, GA  30031.  Members of the press can obtain the DVD for free as part of a media packet on Election Deception in Georgia, send us your credentials or email us by clicking here.

Current, educational, video and audio pieces are downloadable online as well as compiled for free distribution as a multimedia CD at the website http://Election.SolarBus.org

June 22, 2006 - Atlanta, GA.

A new, diverse, non-partisan coalition of Georgia voters announced today that it will file a lawsuit on behalf of all nine million current and future Georgia voters to seek relief from Georgia’s existing implementation of electronic voting.  Representatives of the group, known as VoterGA, explained that current statewide voting cannot be verified, audited or recounted. They contend that because no direct physical evidence of voter intent is ever captured by the machines, fraud and errors are now virtually undetectable statewide.

Prior to 2002, about 82% of Georgians used optical scan and punch card equipment to cast ballots that could be verified, audited and recounted. The 2002 statewide E-voting implementation reduced that percentage from 82% to zero. Two years later, Free Congress Foundation rated Georgia as having the worst voting systems and procedures in America. As rationale for the rating, VoterGA founder, Garland Favorito, posed the question: “If voters cannot see their own ballot selections, cannot physically verify that their ballot was ever cast and cannot participate in counting the ballots, how could they be further disenfranchised?”

June 8, 2008
 
ATLANTA, GA   Citing concerns over conflict of interest, voting rights activists today repeated their call for Secretary of State Cathy Cox to step down from her position as chief overseer of Georgia elections during her run for Governor. 

The call was made initially at the State Election Board meeting in Savannah a week ago. A formal letter requesting State Election Board action on the Secretary of State’s conflict of interest was delivered today.

“As a candidate for Governor, Secretary of State Cox has a conflict of interest that is directly connected to the problem with electronic voting,” states John Fortuin, computer programmer and co-founder of Defenders of Democracy, a state voting rights group. 

“If we could audit these machines on election day, we’d have a way to keep the Secretary of State accountable for the fairness of this election. But unfortunately, Georgia’s electronic voting machines cannot be audited. In fact, the machines run on secretly written software that at any point can be tampered with—without any fear of detection—by those with the right kind of access.”

“Access can be achieved through technological means, but access is also about relationships,” notes Mark Sawyer, co-founder of Defenders of Democracy.   “Particularly in light of Secretary of State Cox’s continuing opposition to statewide voting machine audits, it would  be  foolish  of us  not  to  be  wary of her  close  relationship to  the vendor.”

Cox purchased and implemented Georgia’s electronic voting system from Diebold in 2002, after Cox was lobbied by former Secretary of State turned Diebold lobbyist, Lewis Massey, who was Cox’s previous boss.