PRESS RELEASE from the Constitution
Party of Georgia
Media Contact: Garland Favorito
Georgia Certified
Election Results Missing 130 Votes
(ATLANTA,
November 20) – The Constitution Party of Georgia presented
documentation today that showed the official 2008 Georgia election
results failed to include more than 10% of the votes cast for
Constitution Party Presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin. As sample
evidence, party officials contrasted the certified Cherokee County
election results, which confirm 75 votes for Baldwin, with the official
November 14th state results for Cherokee County, which show no votes
for Baldwin. After sampling the official county results from 100 of
Georgia's 159 counties, party officials estimated that more than 130 of
Baldwin's 1,300 votes from 10 specific counties were missing.
The
Constitution Party of Georgia has petitioned the Secretary of State to
re-canvass each county and obtain the certified write in votes. While
the Elections Division has corrected a couple of the most egregious
errors, some county results still remain underreported. November 19th
was the final deadline for election certifications as required by law.
It is unclear if the results will ever be corrected to reflect the
official county results.
State party chair Ricardo Davis
explained that this is not the first time a Constitution Party write-in
candidate has been initially denied his votes. In the 2006 elections,
Fulton County initially lost 238 of 240 votes cast for State House 65th
district candidate James "Woody" Holmes. After Mr. Holmes and Mr. Davis
protested, county officials found the votes. Mr. Holmes and Mr. Davis
still believe the final totals are dramatically underreported based on
campaign outreach efforts. Mr. Davis explained that there is no way to
be sure since Georgia electronic voting equipment has no independent
audit trail that can be used to verify the votes.
Equally as
disturbing, the party also provided official state results from
November 13th and 14th showing that official totals for all write-in
candidates, including Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader, were reduced by
two thirds between the two days. For example, Mr. Baldwin was
originally reported to have received over 3,600 votes on November 13th.
Election workers blamed the discrepancy on a computer glitch that
initially over-reported votes of all write in candidates.
Baldwin,
McKinney and Nader, who were all on enough ballots in other states to
hypothetically win the presidency, were forced into write-in status in
Georgia. Georgia has long been recognized by Ballot Access News as
having the most restrictive ballot access laws in the country.
According to Ballot Access News, some Georgia election regulations for
some races are 10 times more restrictive than those of a combined
national average of all other states. Mr. Davis contended that the
state of Georgia and its county officials could have saved time, cut
costs and reduced risk of human error if all three candidates were
placed on the ballot as they were in most other states.
Mr.
Davis is also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state of Georgia
regarding its use of a certain type of electronic voting equipment. The
suit contends that election results cannot be properly verified,
audited and recounted. The suit can be viewed at www.voterga.org. Mr.
Davis explained, "Georgia is the only state in the union that plans to
conduct future statewide elections on unverifiable voting equipment. It
is time for a major overhaul of Georgia election law, equipment and
procedures."
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