Donzella James Contesting Primary in Georgia E-VOTING MACHINES (X-POST)

[kster]

POSTED BY: helderheid
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1826719

BREAKING: Donzella James Contesting Primary in Georgia E-VOTING MACHINES



BREAKING: Donzella James Contesting Primary in Georgia

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor and National Correspondent, Atlanta Progressive News (August 04, 2006)

(APN) ATLANTA -- US Congressional Candidate Donzella James has filed a legal contest of the results of her Primary race against US Rep. David Scott (D-GA), Atlanta Progressive News has learned. The suit has been filed in State Court in Fulton County, Georgia.

The lawsuit asserts Georgia’s election “results” are meaningless because they run on E-voting machines which have no verifiable paper trail or audit system.

“People know there’s a problem with auditing these machines. But no opponent has ever challenged after the race,” Donzella James told Atlanta Progressive News.

The lawsuit also lists instances of machine breakdowns and malfunctions in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District during the Primary. These instances are similar to those documented by US Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s (D-GA) Campaign in the 4th District, and discussed exclusively by Atlanta Progressive News.

The lawsuit is believed to set a national precedent.

“Good, I’m glad she’s challenging, she should!” Brad Friedman of the noted elections integrity website, BradBlog, said in a phone interview.

The Donzella James Campaign isn’t taking the same approach as say, Kerry/Edwards 2004. They aren’t trying to calculate the known malfunctions to see if they add up to greater than the margin of vote difference between more progressive James and the moderate Scott (35%). The point is, because of the lack of a paper trail, there is no way to determine how many unknown malfunctions there are.

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http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0076.html

[mom cat]

1. WOOT! This is fabulous!

[marmar]

2. Good for her...

These machines have got to go, and legal challenges are a good start.

[Peace Patriot]

3. For those you don't know it, our own Landshark is the atty. in the Calif

50th (Bilbray/Busby) electon lawsuit, on the same/similar issues--invalidity of e-voting among them. Starting to look like a movement, eh? Autorank thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1819155

[Awsi Dooger]

4. Her former campaign manager didn't think she would break 25%

So perhaps Diebold cheated her opponent.

I realize this is about the machines, not the race, but Donzella James seems like a real prize. She apparently called her opponent's young daughter a slut during the day of the 2004 primary: http://georgiaunfiltered.blogspot.com/2005/11/donzella-james-forms-congressional.html

"Isnt this like the 100th losing effort? And didnt she once call Senator Reed's daughter a slut?"
By Anonymous, at Monday, November 14, 2005 10:32:48 PM

"No she called Congressman Scott's daughter a slut while the young girl was holding a sign on election day."
By Anonymous, at Tuesday, November 15, 2005 8:19:04 PM

"No, that was Senator Reed's daughter in the 2004 primary. She went home in tears.
Shit like that is why nobody takes James seriously, but if you want to ruin your career working for that fool, go ahead Andre. Its not like this is your first fuckup candidate."
By Anonymous, at Wednesday, November 16, 2005 7:51:51 PM

Here's the summary on Donzella James from her former campaign manager:http://georgiaunfiltered.blogspot.com/2006/04/donzella-james-david-scott-their-new.html

"So I was crusing through the internet this morning, when I came across the website of former state Sen. Donzella James (www.donzella4congress.com).

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I should reveal that I was Donzella's campaign manager for a decent amount of time, and while I'm not going to do any Donzella-bashing today, I should mention that I left the campaign because A) She wanted me to work for free & B) The lady doesn't like to raise money (which I should've known considering that the most she ever raised while she was in the Georgia State Senate was $50,000, which isn't enough money to say grace over...for a incumbent Senator that is).

Anyways, Donzella's website looks pretty decent, but I'm hoping that she doesn't run the same kind of campaign for Congress that she did when she tried to regain her old Senate seat from Kasim Reed, in 2004, which was to engage in a "yard-sign war"; but since I happen to live in the 13th Congressional District, I have to say that I'm already seeing "Donzella for Congress" yard-signs popping up on the side of the roads.

Moving on to Congressman David Scott, who's been touring the 13th district holding town-hall meetings, his new website is www.davidscottforcongress.com, and from what I hear, Congressman Scott already has his billboards going up across the 13th district; and more than likely, he'll be airing t.v. ads soon too. Back in February, I finally had the opportunity to meet David Scott in person, and I have to say that he's very smooth and very sharp. It's like I told Donzella, when I was running her campaign, David Scott can cough and raise $500,000...he can sneeze and raise $1 million, but she didn't listen to me so I'm not even worried about it.

However, I will issue this prediction about the Democratic primary in the 13th...I'll be surprised if Donzella James gets more than 25% of the vote."

[OnTheOtherHand]

5. hang on, there

If you believe everything you read on blogs, well, please don't Google me. ;)

I have no clue whether the "slut" story is true, but I couldn't find any support in Lexis-Nexis or elsewhere (of course, I may have missed). Here's what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had to say about her run for State Senate in 2004: "(The) challenger, former Sen. Donzella James, had an impressive record as a legislator herself, but she has not offered substantial reasons to replace Reed."

I agree that she probably didn't win*, so if she is going to sue on the basis of No Basis For Confidence, I hope she pretty much sticks to that principle (or maybe she has solid evidence of some other stuff). But I'm not going to hold anonymous attacks against her.

* EDIT TO ADD: referring, of course, to the 2006 congressional primary against Scott.

[Awsi Dooger]

8. Looks like there was bad blood between James and Scott

http://www.11alive.com/specials/local/politics/politics_article.aspx?storyid=75407

"Speaking of campaigns -- and splintered Democrats--today, the Capitol saw the launch of a bid by one Democrat to settle an old score with another. Four years ago, Atlanta Democrats Donzella James and David Scott served together in the State Senate. Today, Scott is a Congressman, and James is out of office. It all started when Georgia added two new Congressional districts, a golden opportunity for ambitious politicos. James declared her candidacy for one of the seats, believing she had Scott's assurance that he would not run for it.

Whether she indeed had that assurance from him or not, only they know. But Scott eventually launched his own campaign--and rolled to victory, knocking out James in the primary. Now, the lines of that 13th Congressional District have been redrawn; and the new version includes more of James's old turf. So, today, she announced she will challenge Congressman Scott in the Democratic primary. It still won't be easy: Scott is a very effective campaigner and money-raiser; and he has the huge advantage of being the incumbent. But, with Donzella James in the race, it certainly won't be dull."

Sheesh, you can't slip in an innocent slut reference around here anymore. I didn't even notice all of them were anonymous. I read the comment from the former campaign manager first, which implied there had been plenty of Donzella James bashing, so when the next Google entry featured the slut comment I assumed that was par for her.

No, I couldn't find any confirmation either, although there were enough specifics like which day, whose daughter it was, how she reacted, that I would guess true if I had to lean one way or another.

In looking at her background more closely, James has done some very good things. Her 18 year old son was killed by a drunk driver in 1994 so she has taken that up as a cause, many proposals supported by MADD when she was a state senator. This from 2004, just before her primary defeat: http://www.alanpowell.net/scripts/print.php?id=588

"First elected in 1994, James served four terms in the state Senate and is a familiar figure to south Fulton residents. James gained considerable power and respect within the Senate, garnering herself a seat on the Appropriations Committee, as well as the chairmanship of the Interstate Cooperation Committee and the vice chairmanships of the State and Local Government Operations and the Veterans and Consumer Affairs committees.

She was also known as being a fierce proponent for tougher DUI legislation, drawing from her own experience as her son, Kerry, was killed in an accident with a habitual drunk driver."

I looked at many previews of this year's race and none of the political blogs expected James to win. In fact, there were many expressions of surprise that she received 35%.: http://uspoliticspage.blogspot.com/2006/07/georgia-primary-results.html

"Georgia CD 13
Congressman David Scott (D) faced a surprisingly rigorous challenge from Donzella James, but still won his primary 65%-35%. He will face Deborah Honeycutt (R) in November."

[flyingobject]

6. BBV.org elbows in on someone elses work again

I am glad that Ms. James is contesting the election, but
not glad with the sorry journalism in this rag of a paper.

The Atlanta Progressive doesn't bother to ask questions
like "who, what, when or where"

Here the Atlanta Progressive lets BBV.org accept credit for
"revealing" someone else's work!

The organization BlackBoxVoting revealed this week that technology experts
have discovered the worst known security flaw ever in E-voting machines,
in the Diebold machines that are used in Georgia and one other state. (Developing...)
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0076.html

Summary: BBV.org reveals that someone else (that isn't BBV.org) made an important discovery that BBV.org had nothing to do with.


Why didn't BBV.org tell the Atlanta Progressive that it was Alan Dechert of
Open Voting Consortium who discovered the WORST known security flaw ever found in E-voting machines?


Atlanta Progressive Journal - here is a clue:

July 31, 2006
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- “This may be the worst security flaw we have seen in touch screen voting machines,” says Open Voting Foundation president, Alan Dechert. Upon examining the inner workings of one of the most popular paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United States, it has been determined that with the flip of a single switch inside, the machine can behave in a completely different manner compared to the tested and certified version.

“Diebold has made the testing and certification process practically irrelevant,” according to Dechert. “If you have access to these machines and you want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS -- and it could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver.” This model does not produce a voter verified paper trail so there is no way to check if the voter’s choices are accurately reflected in the tabulation...
http://openvotingfoundation.org/

But this isn't the first time Bev dissed Open Voting Consortium (or others):
"Re: Bev Harris Trashed OVC at the Houston ElectionHearing"
http://gnosis.python-hosting.com/voting-project/July.2005/0026.html

Why didn't this rag of a paper contact the real expert who found and
documented the real flaw in the Diebold TS?

Seems like that would be more helpful to the citizens of Georgia.

[kster]

7. Kick////nt

[Land Shark]

9. still relevant...