Andrew Gumbel on Huffington Post: America's Next Election Nightmare

[Bill Bored]

In the 2000 presidential election we had Katherine Harris. In 2004 it was Kenneth Blackwell. And now a new horror show is about to play out in the troubled landscape of America’s dysfunctional democracy – yet another top state election official who also happens to be openly cheerleading for one side in a race for high office.

The new poster-child for how not to run elections is Cathy Cox, the Secretary of State of Georgia. Only she comes with an added twist. She won’t merely be helping to run someone else’s campaign in next year’s mid-terms; she will be running for office herself.

Cox, a Democrat, was the first Secretary of State to champion and purchase an all-electronic touch screen voting system for her state. She persuaded Georgia to spend an initial $54 million on a hitherto untried Diebold system in 2002, and has tried ever since to parlay the e-voting revolution she helped launch into a bid for the Georgia governorship in November 2006. “Advancing the e-government revolution,” is the slogan on her website.

-snip-

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-gumbel/americas-next-election-n_b_7940.html>

Perhaps Howard Dean needs to have sitdown with Ms. Cox.

[Melodybe]

1. Fuck Democrats that hate Democracy!

Fuck that stupid bitch!

[wtbymark]

2. e-government = virtual president

[CottonBear]

3. I will not be voting for her.

I've met her (prior to the post-2000 Biebold debacle) and she would have been a strong candidate. But now, there's no way I could vote for her.
:(

[AX10]

4. Vote her out.

[zalinda]

5. Before you hate her too much

the repubs will have a fit if she wins. They will say she cheated with the e-voting.

zalinda

[Boredtodeath]

9. Yeah, well, perhaps she should have seen that coming

When she implemented and defended an unverifiable voting system. Ya think?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. Diebold ran Georgia Elections

• Georgia ran its first all-touch screen election, in November 2002, with software for which no evidence of legal certification had been submitted. Certification documents were still not forthcoming, in fact, as late as March 2003. Because of a meltdown in the schedule for training county election workers, Georgia ended up abdicating control of the election to Diebold technicians, who ran it on the state’s behalf – without the voters being told.

• While state officials were assuring the public everything had passed off swimmingly, they were telling Diebold they had found evidence of screen freezes and other calibration problems potentially affecting the accuracy of the vote count, the deployment of “obsolescent” memory cards, CDs supposedly containing county election results that turned out to be blank, memory failures in the tabulation process and a raft of other problems.

• Two months before last year’s presidential election, Georgia and Diebold identified the need for a “security adjustment” to be installed on every terminal. But the state did not insist on having it certified and installed before the vote took place. Rather, Diebold was given a deadline of May 2005 – six months after the election. In other words, Georgia went ahead with the election in the full knowledge that its security was compromised.

[Boredtodeath]

7. Please be sure to comment on Andrew's article

It's not just hits that keep this on HP, but the comments as well.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

8. Recommended n/t

[AtLiberty]

10. Cathy Cox = Zell Miller

What is the history of this DINO?

[Boredtodeath]

11. Oh, that's soooo easy

Spring of 2004 the republicans asked her to switch parties and become Sonny Perdue's running mate for the Lt. Governor's office.

The sad part was her response - "I need to think about it."

The only thing that stopped her was she wants the Governor's mansion, nothing less.

[Boredtodeath]

12. Here's the article

So what are Republicans to do to fill that yawning personality gap in their leadership ranks?

Some leading Republicans have a surefire answer. Induce Secretary of State Cox to forget her Democratic rescue mission and join the GOP. She has not quite rebuffed their advances.

Here is the deal they have proffered:

_ Cox would switch to the Republican Party and immediately announce for lieutenant governor in 2006. She would run to succeed Democrat Mark Taylor, presently a wide-open candidate for governor against Perdue.

_ In exchange for switching, Cox would be richly rewarded. Top-rung Republicans-- the ones with the fattest wallets and most generous hearts--would discourage other GOP members from entering the lieutenant governor's fray.

snip....

She confirmed that Republicans had offered the above-described arrangement. And, yes, she has a number of Republican friends who like the idea of her switching. She mentioned GOP state Chairman Alex Poitevint, who lives in Bainbridge, Cox's hometown. No, she would not confirm whether high-powered lobbyist Joe Tanner had acted as a go-between.

She also mentioned that her cell phone connection was fading. She said she'd talk to me later. She wanted to think.
http://www.forest-blade.com/news/2004/1215/columns/051.html