Cox (D) Files to Begin Ga. Governor Campaign

[Khephra]

ATLANTA -- Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox announced Monday that she will run for governor in 2006, making her the second Democrat working to deny re-election to Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue. Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor announced earlier.

In an announcement posted on her Web site, Cox said she believed the time was right for her to run. She filed the paperwork Monday that allows her to begin raising money for the campaign.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-cox-governor,0,6831142.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[goforit]

1. Democrat win in Ga.?

Hmmmmmm...........

[toopers]

6. Actually, there is a good chance of us regaining the Gov.

There were a lot of things going on in the last election that tilted the state towards a Repug Gov.

[Junkdrawer]

2. Cathy Cox has a long and storied history with Diebold in Georgia...

Don't be surprised if Diebold lets her win. She knows where the bodies are buried. :tinfoilhat:

[Eloriel]

3. For all we know, that may have been part of the deal

she's had her sights on the Gov's mansion for quite some time. Not exactly a secret in Georgia.

And Diebold loves her so much they've got her photo on the cover of some of their promotional material.

[chomskysright]

4. Cathy 'Diebold' Cox.....

cousing to Ann Cox Chambers who has control of both of the Atlanta papers.....who rammed Diebold machines into GA, every county...who lies to the citizens of GA re: 'there has never been a reported incident' pertaining to voting irregularities pertaining to Diebold....whose former boss and former Secreatary of State of GA is the main seller of Diebold machines to the state of GA....

[Kelvin Mace]

5. This woman has bent over backwards to subvert democracy

by shilling for Diebold. She MUST be defeated.

David Allen
www.thoughtcrimes.org

[Charlie Brown]

9. Do you know anything about Cathy

apart from her association with e-voting? From what I've seen, she's championed pretty much every position that progressives find important. She opposed the GA marriage amendment, in spite of its massive grassroots support. Cox is pro-education, pro-immigration, pro-separation of church/state. What exactly has she done to "subvert democracy?" Do you want that Repug Perdue to win this race?

[Cookie wookie]

41. Right on, Mr. Allen.

And we have such ignorant and obviously corrupt supporters in Georgia we're going to have one hell of a time stopping her, if at all.

She is extremely smart and extremely cunning. probably the most cunning person I've ever had the misfortune to run into in life.

[Charlie Brown]

43. since you're tossing out allegations

What about Cox makes her "the most cunning person (you've) ever had the misfortune to run into?" What is it about her positions and policies that makes you think she would be worse than Perdue? Will you vote for him over Cox?

[LizW]

7. Well, this should be interesting

Will Diebold come through for Cox? Or does the magic only work for Republicans?

Have to watch this one closely.

[stickdog]

8. She delivered Georgia to Diebold. Will Diebold deliver GA's governorship

to her?

[TahitiNut]

10. Well, Zell Miller is a Georgia "Democrat" too.

Pardon me if I don't wave my pom-poms until I see her platform and record.

[Charlie Brown]

15. Here's her response to the last Republican "state of the state"

http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?kaid=106&subid=122&contentid=252335

I think she shows a lot of promise.

[Charlie Brown]

11. You people are demonizing Ms. Cox b/c of E-VOTING?!

Are you guys aware of the callous, illegal policies of the incumbant Republican, Sonny Perdue? He declared a "state of emergency" in six GA counties during the G-8 Summit so that law enforcement could clamp down on protesters. He's begun goading the human resources department to give our tax money to churches and "faith-based" groups, even though our constitution explicitly prohibits that funding. He no longer wanted the state to fund GA's medicaid program, so he convinced the legislature to tax the estates of medicaid recipients (taxing the desperately poor? This alone makes Perdue our worst governor since Lester Maddox). He's also championed the gutting of funding for GA's school systems, thereby placing an ever increasing burden on local communities to make up the difference. He jumped on board "traditional values" bandwagon supporting the marriage amendment, even though his daughter was having an extra-marital affair and ended up getting divorced (hypocrite).

Give me one reason why Cox would not be a better choice than the current occupant of the Governor's mansion.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. She's owned by Diebold, it seems.

Sonny Perdue isn't, but why must we have Cathy Cox and not a GOOD Democrat???

[Charlie Brown]

13. Who would be a "good democrat?" Cynthia McKinney?

She'd get maybe 20% of the vote. I want someone who can WIN on the ticket.

[TroglodyteScholar]

21. Liutenant Gov. Mark Taylor?

I do tend to agree that Cox is a good candidate aside from her association with e-voting. Her main challenger in the primary will be Liutenant Gov. Mark Taylor.

[chomskysright]

26. fucking A: McKinney stood against the Iraq War...

[Charlie Brown]

28. McKinney has NO FOLLOWING outside of DeKalb/Fulton counties

She's been lambasted so much by the neo-con propaganda that all state-wide democrats have avoided association with her character. I like a lot of what McKinney stands for, but feel she's brought a lot of the criticism on herself. Regardless, she wouldn't carry a single county besides those two, and her defeat would be another embarassment for the GA Democrats, signifying that the party represented the urban elite, and no one else. Cox only entered the race today, and Perdue is ALREADY attacking her for being affiliated with McKinney.

http://www.11alive.com/specials/local/decision2004/decision_article.aspx?storyid=56262

"But Nick Ayers, executive director of the Perdue campaign, said Cox was not approached by emissaries from Perdue.

"If Cathy Cox didn't support Cynthia McKinney, John Kerry and gay marriage, she'd fit great into the Georgia Republican Party, but she does," Ayers said."

If Kerry can't even win in GA, what chance would McKinney have?

I want someone who's already run statewide and in Cox's case, won. She has a good reputation among most Georgians.

[Cookie wookie]

44. Why would McKinney, who is now in Congress

be brought up in a discussion about the governorship in 2006? That is called "bait and switch."

How do we know that Kerry didn't win in Georgia?

After all, what proof is available? Our voting system is 100% paperless, can't be audited, secret code owned by Diebold, and eminently hackable.

The latter exemplified by the fact that 2003 technologists, including the brightest scientific and technological minds in the US from institutions and corporations including the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cornell, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Stanford, harvard, Princeton, Yale, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have signed a resolution to mandate vvpat at http://www.verifiedvoting.com.

Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure (world-renowned Finnish computer-virus hunting company) said, because the Diebold password "1111" is hard-coded into the system, "What were they thinking?" p. 162 VF.

"Taylor Bodman, a partner at the investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman said of the fact that the GEMS code employs a Microsoft Access database engine, "But you don't keep serious applications on it. It's too basic and easily hacked." p. 162, VF.

Preston Futrell, of Internet Security Systems (http://www.iss.net/), said at a workshop on Information Technology security last April at Emory University that he had spoken with the Georgia Technology Authority the day before who had called him in to consult on the security of the systems, at the behest of Gov perdue. He (Futrell) said that there is no wya the system could be made secure in time for the General Election (Nov 2004). .

Then there are the independent studies of the Diebold system including those done by Johns Hopkins, SAIC, and RABA Technologies that firmly established unacceptable security risks with Diebold's paperless sytem.

Diebold's connections to the Republican party.

The lack of oversight for testing and certification.

The lack of knowledge of technology by those persons who are supposed to oversee elections, election officials in Georgia. To quote Cathy Cox from last Spring, "I don't know anything about technology," she said when asked if she knew that Brit Williams, who is supposed to be overseeing the GEMS code at the Kennesaw Election Systems, doesn't even know how to read C++.

And so much more.

There is no way on earth we can know that Kerry won or lost Georgia, unless someone came out and confessed to rigging the election, or maybe all the machines were impounded and tested and malicious code was found (in the millions of lines of GEMS code). If it wasn't found that wouldn't prove it hadn't been there, only that it isn't there at the time of being checked.

[Charlie Brown]

45. Kerry "officially" got 41%

most polls up to the election (by the AJC) only placed Kerry in the mid-thirties in GA. If there was a big conspiracy to rig the GA tally, why would the result be higher than Kerry was running in the polls? The Associated Press conducted concise exit polls, and called GA to Bush within an hour of the polls closing. I believe the precinct where I live posted the results after the closing for anyone who was interested to see. Are the national press organizations, the polling companies, voting officials, and volunteers all implicit in this conspiracy to hand the election to Republicans? Even unapologetic Democrats like Cox?

Perhaps she doesn't know anything about the technology. That does not make Cox the evil genius many here seem to believe her to be. It simply makes her at worst ignorant of what's going on. I'd still like to know what Cox has to gain from this conspiracy if she's implicit. What does she get out of it, apart from an incumbant Republican Governor and a Republican legislature. Some of these accusations sound like stuff the right is usually accusing us of. Why must we attack our own?

[mitchum]

24. I agree completely, DemBones DemBones

[Junkdrawer]

14. Ummm--because Cox helped put him there - and helped to defeat...

Cleland to boot.

The Primary should be interesting, to say the least.

[Charlie Brown]

16. Yes, that's clearly a reason to support Perdue

How silly of me.

[Junkdrawer]

17. I didn't know the Primary was over..

Oh wait, Georgia's 100% Diebold.

How silly of me.

[Charlie Brown]

18. So if she wins the primary

will you vote on her? Or will you stay home to protest Diebold?

[Junkdrawer]

19. I'm not planning on moving to Georgia...

But if I did live there and the choice was Cox/Perdue, I think I'd vote...with my feet.

[Cookie wookie]

38. I wouldn't vote for Cox

and I'll do everything in my power to stop others from voting for her. Mark Taylor is the candidate and voter verified paper ballots on our Diebold machines and he'll win.

Be interesting to see if Diebold will put Cox in, probably that's part of the deal. Someone who would sell out all the Dems in Georgia to get more political power; yeah, right, that's the candidate that will help education and blah blah in Georgia.

[Charlie Brown]

42. How does Cathy "get more political power"

by doing what everyone's accusing her of on this thread? As a Democrat, it would have been in Cox's best interest to keep Barnes in office, and then promote herself as his successor. Why is Cathy still a Democrat in the Deep South if she's in it for political gain? If she's helping the Republicans, and is beaten as a Democrat, what does mean ol' Cathy get out of it?

As for Taylor, where is his denunciation of the marriage amendment and school vouchers? If he's such a hero of progressive values, surely he wouldn't mind going on record with his positions.

[Cookie wookie]

22. 1. She lies to the public and to legislators.

2. She subverts democracy.

3. She has sold her soul to gain power.

Three reasons for the price of one.

[Charlie Brown]

23. Well, screw education and equality, then.

Let's go vote for Perdue.

[TroglodyteScholar]

20. Cathy "Black Box" Cox

"Because of Cathy Cox’s efforts Georgia has become a national leader in election reform. Her initiative made Georgia the first state in America to deploy a modern, uniform electronic voting system in every county. The new touch screen system has won acclaim throughout the state and across the nation, and has made Georgia elections more accurate and more accessible to the disabled and visually impaired."

from Cathy Cox Bio

[Cookie wookie]

25. Georgia goes from blue to red in 4 years with Diebold

What a coincidinky.

What Cox has at stake:

“Georgia was ‘the only state to use the same electronic equipment simultaneously in all of its 2,926 precincts,’ according to the New York Times *.

During a recession and at a time when state governments are being ordered to cut back on spending, Cox persuaded the Georgia legislature to use bond financing and raise $53.9 million. With it, she purchased 19,015 Diebold Election Systems Inc.’s Accu-Vote TSTM touch-screen system machines.

The legislature also gave her $4 million for voter education. She spent $500,000 for 30-second TV spots promoting the machines, and another $300,000 to train poll workers.”

“Cathy Cox’s Leap”, Georgia First Amendment Foundation, Winter 2002, p. 10.

*Note: In that 2002 election Senator Max Cleland and Governor Roy Barnes, both Democrats, lost. That was just the beginning. Since Cox installed the Diebold machines Georgia went from blue to red in 3 elections (2000, 2002, 2004) in 4 years. Now both the Senate and the House are ruled by Republicans, as well as the governorship and US senate seats.

“An ‘Atlanta Journal-Constitution” poll had shown Barnes leading Perdue by 11 points two days before the election.”

“. . . Democratic incumbent Max Cleland five points ahead of his Republican challenger, Saxby Chambliss, two days before the election. Yet Chambliss won by 7 percent: a 12-point shift in 48 hours.”

“Hack the Vote, Vanity Fair,” 2004, pp. 160. & 168.

[chomskysright]

27. that's the ugly of Cathy Diebold cox

[Charlie Brown]

33. Ah, yes, Cathy conspired with Perdue, Chambliss to rig the election

and Cathy continues the subterfuge by refusing to join the Republicans in spite of their massive pressure on her to switch parties. Then Perdue promptly writes her off as a rabid liberal:

http://www.11alive.com/specials/local/decision2004/decision_article.aspx?storyid=56262

Yes, Perdue and Cox are clearly conspiring to divide GA between the two of them. How could I have thought otherwise?

[Cookie wookie]

36. Zell won't become a

"Republican" either.

[Charlie Brown]

37. Did Bush write-off Zell as a liberal

and Kerry supporter? I must have missed that.

[Cookie wookie]

29. Examples of Misinformation from the Office of the SOS

presented at State and Local Governmental Operations (SLOGO) committee meetings on 2/26/04, 3/4/04, and 3/11/04. This information was presented to justify paperless voting in Georgia and in opposition to Senate Bill 500, which proposed legislation that required a voter verified paper audit trail (vvpat) for Georgia's Diebold Election Systems touchscreen voting system.

1) SOS Bold face Lie: There is currently no NASED certified technology that could be retrofitted to Georgia's Diebold electronic voting system to produce a vvpat (SLOGO committee meeting on 2/26/04)

Truth: The technology not only existed at that time, but was certified by NASED. Activists persuaded the committee to allow two vendors with the technology, TruVote and Avante, to demonstrate their technology for the SLOGO committee meeting on 3/04/04 at which time the SOS Cathy Cox suddenly remembered that she had known of TruVote and Avante technology from the time the SOS's office had the RFP conducted before they purchased the Diebold system. (Oopsie, Cathy, caught in a big lie in front of everybody)

2) SOS Lie/Mislead/or Stupidity (lie): Long lines at the polls "associated with poll workers addressing toner and paper jams and refills on printers," and spoiled ballots that don't correspond to the GEMS digital record. (SLOGO committee meeting on 2/26/04 and the SOS document "Security Features of Georgia's Electronic Voting System")

Truth: The SOS indicated that she was aware of TruVote technology (above detailed), yet her election's officials did not know that the technology, thermal printing, is used extensively throughout banking and commerce worldwide, has little to no problems that would create poll delays (doesn't require toner, rolls can be ordered to the size of the ballots and expected numbers of voters. The paper doesn't jam according to spokespeople at Wal-Mart (sorry everyone to use them but at the time that was a high volume store I could get a quote from) who use the technology to print millions of sales receipts annually.) Available NASED certified printing technology also includes an auditing system for "spoiled ballots."

3) SOS Misleading Lie: The technology to produce vvpat is not: 1) certified by NASED; and/or b) not qualified to 2002 VSS (SLOGO committee meetings on 3/4/04 and 3/11/04).

Truth: TruVote and Avante voting systems were both qualified to 1990 VSS by NASED, as was Diebold's technology. The SOS repeatedly failed to produce documentation, under the Georgia Open Records Act, that the Diebold voting systems in Georgia were qualified to 2002 VSS. Staff at the FEC stated on 3/12/04 that Diebold is in the process of qualifying their voting system to 2002 VSS, but it wasn't qualified at that time. Kevin Chung, Ph.D., President of Avante also said (3/4/04) that Diebold's technology was not certified to 2002 VSS.

4) SOS disgusting lie, which she brought in Meg Smothers of the League of Women's voters and Kathy Rogers, director of Elections Systems, and another SOS staffer to say: A voter verified paper audit trail would disenfranchise disabled voters (SLOGO Committee meetings on 2/27/04, 3/4/04, and 3/11/04.

Truth: The technology to produce vvpat in no way disenfranchises disabled voters. Voters who are blind can use the earphones and touch keypads provided with the current Diebold system which includes an audio program that takes voters all the way through their selections, including "reading" what is on the paper copy of their ballot (the vvpat).

Information on Avante systems:
http://www.aitechnology.com/votetrakker2/home.htm

TruVote International no longer has a presence online. Ten days after Athan Gibbs, it's president and the inventor of the TruVote technology, demonstrated the technology to the SLOGO committee, he was "accidently" run off the highway at around 10:30 a.m., Friday, March 14, 2004, by an 18-wheeler truck and killed .

http://www.tennessean.com/obits/archives/04/03/48330576.shtml

I hope other activists from Georgia will catch this thread and contribute more to the documented lies of the Georgia SOS.

[Cookie wookie]

30. "The ballot is the most powerful nonviolent tool

we have in a democracy. And if that is threatened, we won't have much left . . . .It means a great deal to me, because I almost gave my life for all of our citizens to participate in the democratic process. Not just to get a vote, but to have all the votes counted." Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), quoted from "Election 2004: Rigged elections? Touch-screen critics howl," by Carlos Campos, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2004, pp. A 14-15.

The article, by the way, is another effort by the AJC to whitewash the problems with touchscreen paperless corporatized voting and make activists out to be "conspiracy theorists."

To say that Cox may be okay except for orchestrating Diebold's control of our vote in Georgia is to forget that without our vote we don't have a democracy.

[Charlie Brown]

32. I want to live in a state

where ALL PEOPLE have access to the best education they can get regardless of their income, where green spaces are protected from the encroachment of developers, corporations, etc., where hospitals, libraries, health care and emergency services get the funding they so richly deserve and where people won't be denied opportunities b/c of their sexuality (and where women can exercise their right to choose). Perdue and the Republicans do not give a fig about these issues. If Cox is willing to advocate these positions, then I'm willing to support her. Other GA Democrats should also be willing, unless they want to further hand our priorities to the Republicans.

I could care less what Diebold might have to do with anything, and it greatly frustrates me that many here are harping it as a pertinent issue.

[Cookie wookie]

34. Eight Ball says:

"Very likely stealing elections from the poor Dems and giving them to the rich repubs."

Oh, but that doesn't matter because she calls herself a Democrat. I see.

man am I dense.

[Charlie Brown]

40. If Cox was out to help Perdue remain in office

why would she be challenging him? This course of running for Gov while secretly rigging things in Perdue's favor would only bring an end to her own political career. If Cox were in Perdue's corner, she would have been all too glad to become a Republican and endorse him. Indeed, this would be the most practical option for someone seeking the Governorship of GA, as Democrats are fading out of prominence. If she is a Perdue collaborator, what does Cox have to gain by running against the Governor?

[Cookie wookie]

35. And Mark Taylor is not viable as a candidate

because . . . ?

[Charlie Brown]

39. Didn't say he wasn't

I'd probably prefer Cox, as I know her history a little better, and her continued advocacy for the causes I've mentioned in other posts is something I respect (whereas Taylor has been relatively silent). I imagine Taylor will cave on abortion (if he runs), and become a "only in case of rape or incest" candidate. He'll probably distance himself from progressives, as well.

[Cookie wookie]

31. Contributions from Diebold 2004 election

http://www.fecinfo.com/cgi-win/x_employer.exe