independentsforkerry.org

This email from Garland Favorito of VoterGA is packed with information. It includes a mention of the Macon Telegraph article that we posted below, updates on legislation to decrease Georgia’s signature requirements and information on the persecution of a sitting independent Georgia legislator.

VoterGa Supporters,

Here are some significant updates on the legislative front:

First, there is no significant movement on verifiable voting legislation in this session, however, no legislation is needed to move Georgia to verifiable voting equipment. Existing law supports verifiable optical scan equipment, paper ballots and electronic voting machines with VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail). Code changes would only be needed to implement precinct audit procedures but those procedures are not technically possible until the machines have been replaced. We have met with Secretary Kemp and one of the Governor’s policy directors to explain the potential solutions that we believe are viable. We expect to meet with the Secretary again in the next week or two to provide an update on our findings and stress the need to act..

Second, thanks to John Fortuin from Defenders of Democracy, a video tape of the SB 377 hearing is now available at Vimeo.com. SB 377 attempted to place an unprecedented new restriction that would require candidate petition signers to show an ID to the petitioner who is typically a total stranger, thus making it an already difficult task essentially impossible  The video that shows how our testimony was able to thwart this unprecedented new restriction introduced by Sen. Buddy Carter, is available here:

Vimeo SB377 Hearing

Third, thanks to reporter Maggie Lee, the Macon Telegraph produced one of the first in depth articles by a Georgia city newspaper regarding the ridiculous restrictions placed on candidates running for Georgia office. It is available here:

Macon  telegraph ballot access article

This topic was previously the near exclusive domain of Matthew Cardinale and the Atlanta Progressive News. An example of his most recent article on this subject, HB 949 and the current legislative session is here:

Atlanta Progressive News ballot access article

Fourth, in spite of some rather negative and potentially misleading comments in the Macon Telegraph article from Rep. Mark Hamilton (R-Cumming), the chairman of the House Government Affairs Committee that hears election bills, HB 949 is on the General House Calendar for Monday, March 5 and the ballot access community is supportive of the minor petitioning improvements that the bill offers.  Georgia currently has the most restrictive petitioning requirements for district races in the entire country. The requirements are 10 times more restrictive than the national average of all other states combined. HB 949 would move Georgia from the worst in the country to 49^th and still leave district races 7 times more restrictive that the national average of all other states. We have consistently pointed out that this proposed improvement is wholly inadequate but we do not oppose the change. The text of the bill is here:.

HB 949

Fifth, we were unable to get a hearing from Rep. Mark Hamilton for HB 494, the “real ballot access bill”. HB 494 proposes to remove candidate petitioning requirements altogether just as Florida did successfully in 1999 and it allows any Georgian to run for office by paying the standard filing fee that a Democrat or Republican would pay. If freedom and equality sound like common sense principles of good American government, you might want to explain that to the chairman sometime in the future in hopes that he may keep that in mind for Georgia next year if he retains his current position.

HB 494

Sixth, HB 494 author, Rusty Kidd, is now under investigation by the Attorney General’s office after being referred by the State Election Board for 17 questionable signatures out of 1,500 collected in his recent petition drive. Rep. Kidd, an independent in the Georgia legislature, was forced by law to petition for his reelection despite the fact that he was a sitting Georgia legislator! HB 949 will solve this problem for independent incumbents like Rep. Kidd in the future but that does not necessarily help Rep Kidd now. His case, SEB2010-000067, was heard by the State Election Board on Tuesday, February 29^th in Macon. Maggie Lee was there to cover the story with this article:

Macon Telegraph Rusty Kidd SEB Article

The case summary is here:

SEB Case No. 2010-000067 Baldwin County (Petition) - Chris Harvey presented this case and recommended that the board bind the case over to the Attorney General’s Office.

Chairman Kemp recuses himself from the case due to his connection to Representative Kidd on the Election Advisory Council.

Kent Webb made a motion to accept a document from Mr. Harvey, Rusty Simpson seconded; the motion passed unanimously 3 – 0.

The public speaker was Representative E. Culver “Rusty” Kidd (respondent).

Kent Webb made a motion to accept a document from Representative Kidd, Rusty Simpson seconded; the motion passed unanimously 3 – 0.

Kent Webb made a motion to bind SEB Case No. 2010-000067 to the Attorney General’s Office, Rusty Simpson seconded; the motion passed unanimously 3 – 0.

Chairman Kemp calls for the Re-Presentation to SEB cases.

Finally, the petitioning case against Rep. Kidd should be taken seriously. Those of you who have read my previous Emails and posts know that the State Election Board is extremely political. Former Savannah area councilman, Jeff Rayno, was falsely accused of petition forgery and referred to the Attorney General’s office for investigation without evidence of a single forged signature!. After being referred with no evidence by board member, Kent Webb and former Secretary, Karen Handel, he was forced to make three trips to State Election Board meetings before the board finally admitted that they had no case against him. A sitting councilwoman, Helen Stone, who submitted the original complaint actually testified before the board that none should be let go “until it can be proved they had nothing to do with the forgeries”! One board, member actually had to explain to her that: “This is America and the accused person does not have to prove his innocence” Excerpts of this amazing hearing can be found by searching the VoterGa Complaint page for “excerpts” here:

Rayno SEB Complaint Page (search for “excerpts”)

The full meeting transcript is here:

First Rayno SEB hearing transcript

We will be watching Rep Kidd’s case closely and reporting on any new developments.

Garland

www.Voterga.org

404 664-4044

Permission to Reprint Granted

VoterGa is an all volunteer, non-partisan, non-profit, 501C3 organization

Your contributions are fully tax deductible and used for legal expenses

Independent Political Report

From an e-mail from Ricardo Davis, Chairman of the Constitution Party of Georgia:

Friends in the Cause of Liberty,

Today there will be a Multi-County Tea Party Rally this afternoon in Monticello (see below). Yesterday morning I was contacted about the possibility of the Constitution Party being represented at the event, and through the help of supporters this was confirmed late yesterday. Constitution Party of Lamar County coordinator Bob Heiney will be speaking on behalf of the party and principles we uphold. This opportunity wouldn’t be possible if not for the leadership of Bob and the party members there in Lamar County who are actively working to advance the message of the Constitution Party. I covet your prayers for Bob and the team that will be at the rally that they communicate the need for and principles of the Constitution Party of Georgia with winsomeness and courage and that many would take an interest in the party as a result.

If you live in or near Jasper County then come out and enjoy a nice Saturday with fellow patriots and support Bob and the team of volunteers that will be helping. If you have any questions contact Bob at (770) 358-4777.

-Ricardo Davis
State Chairman

WHAT: Tea Party Rally is coming to Jasper County, Monticello, GA. Recreation Dept., 246 Ted Sauls Drive
WHEN: June 18, 2011 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
WHY: Educational purposes, Reaching out to people and preparing for the coming elections.
WHO: Jasper County Tea Party Patriots
Coordinators; Skip and Cheryl Nowetner skip1348@gmail.com // canow@bellsouth.net
Jasper County G.O.P. Chairwoman Karan Bumann
Tea Party Patriot Mary Alice Carter
Assisting are the Newton County Tea Party and the Patriots Table.

Independent Political Report

Watch your tax dollars at work with Hank Johnson, Democrat from Georgia in the United States House of Representatives; Voters of the State of Georgia must be really proud. Really he was the best choice on the ballot? Doesn’t Congressmen Johnson know that the Army Corps of Engineers has securely fastened all US islands to the seabed. It did so after Key West almost tipped over in 1988 during a particularly exuberant gay pride festival.

Overall, if this doesn’t prove that the US needs to invest more money in education, I don’t know what does! And what category do we post this to? Comedy, News & Politics, Entertainment, Education. . .

Democratic Party News – The News of the Democratic Party.

Excerpt from a press release posted at the website of the national Green Party:

Georgia Green Party
Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Georgia Greens Demand Answers on Inmate’s Brutal Treatment
Macon State inmate Transported to Atlanta Medical Center

In a New Year’s Eve letter sent to Governors Sonny Perdue and Nathan Deal, officers of the Georgia Green Party asked why the Georgia Department of Corrections withheld from Terrance Dean’s family news of his condition and whereabouts. The letter asks that they “launch an investigation into whether the DoC’s apparent efforts to conceal (Mr. Dean’s) condition rises to the level of a criminal conspiracy”. Reports conveyed by other Macon State Prison inmates and their families have revealed that on or about the 16th of December, as striking inmates were beginning to return to work, employees of the Corrections Department beat and injured the former Bibb County resident serving his seventh year on a 16 year sentence for armed robbery.

“The violent response to the inmates peaceful, non-violent strike is shameful,” said Bruce Dixon, Press Secretary for the Georgia Green Party and managing editor for the weekly BlackAgendaReport.com. “Prison inmates deserve wages for work, educational and self-improvement activities, decent food and medical care. The state should facilitate, rather than obstruct contact with their families. They deserve human rights and a clear path back to being productive members of society. The institutional human rights abuses exposed by the peaceful prisoners strike severely compromise the moral authority of Georgia’s correctional system.”

Information obtained by the coalition suggests that Mr. Dean was assaulted by state employees in the aftermath of the inmate sit down strike. His injuries necessitated that he be transported from Oglethorpe Georgia to the Atlanta Medical Center. The Department of Corrections failed to notify his family. When family members and advocates finally discovered that we was in Atlanta and attempted to visit with him they were denied that opportunity and denied any information as to Mr. Dean’s condition. The DoC website now lists him as being held at the Georgia Diagnostic Center in Jackson Georgia.

The Georgia Green Party has been urging calls inquiring after the welfare of the Georgia-37. These thirty-seven inmates were identified by DoC investigators as ‘instigators’ of last month’s stop-work action by Georgia inmates on the basis of being found in possession of contraband cell phones. They have been subjected to administrative segregation and reportedly transported to the facilities at Jackson, Reidsville and Washington.

Late Friday morning, Mr. Dean’s sister, along with ACLU attorney Chara Jackson and Edward DuBose, President of the Georgia Conference of NAACP branches both representing the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner’s Rights showed up at the Atlanta hospital. They were left waiting, before finally being informed that no information was available on his condition and that Mr. Dean had been transferred to Jackson.

The Georgia Green Party has lent its support to the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights working in solidarity with the striking inmates. Georgia Green Party leadership are actively cultivating a slate of candidates prepared to bring into the 2012 elections the Party’s challenge to public policies which have created black mass incarceration…

Related Stories:

At the Georgia Green Party website:
http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/system/files/Ltr2Gov_TerranceDean.pdf

http://www.georgiagreenparty.org/QDC/Actions/Ga_Governor_urged_Investigate_Inmate_Beatings

At Independent Political Report:
Bruce A. Dixon: ‘Medical Neglect Stalks Georgia Prisons’

Independent Political Report

Sent to contact.ipr@gmail.com:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ATLANTA – The 2010 election did not result in any newly-elected Libertarians, however the Libertarian Party of Georgia is happy with the results. With nearly 1 million votes earned cumulatively by the first full slate of statewide candidates in the party’s history, the most important aspect of Tuesday’s results are the growth in support the Libertarian Party has seen in Georgia. Experiencing a 30% increase in membership since the beginning of 2010, many in the leadership of the Libertarian Party of Georgia expected big things on Election Day. On Tuesday evening, the Party’s candidates reached and set many milestones and records.

The most important milestone achieved Tuesday was the retention of ballot access for all statewide offices for the next election cycle. State School Superintendent candidate Kira Willis was the first of all ten candidates to cross the threshold of receiving votes from enough voters to equal one percent of registered voters statewide. She was quickly followed by Secretary of State candidate David Chastain and gubernatorial candidate John Monds.

“Retention of ballot access for the Libertarian Party of Georgia is a milestone many take for granted,” said Operations Director Brett Bittner. “However, operating under the most draconian ballot access laws in the nation here in Georgia, we understand the importance of providing Georgians with a choice at the ballot box, and we will continue to work to offer that choice to an ever-increasing number of Georgians. With a little help from the General Assembly, we should be able to field many candidates to oppose the one hundred or so candidates that ran unopposed this cycle.”

John Monds, a candidate accustomed to making history, became the first gubernatorial candidate in Party history to eclipse the 100,000 vote mark while also setting the record for highest percentage of the vote as well with 4.0%, besting Garrett Michael Hayes’ vote total in 2006 by 26%. Joining Mr. Monds in setting the office record and percent of vote were Secretary of State candidate David Chastain, Agriculture Commissioner candidate Kevin Cherry, and Insurance Commissioner candidate Shane Bruce. Election night’s highest vote-getter came from political newcomer and State School Superintendent candidate, Kira Willis, as she earned a total just shy of 125,000 votes in her bid for office. Other notable campaigns include Lieutenant Governor candidate Dan Barber, Attorney General candidate Don Smart, and Labor Commissioner candidate Will Costa, all of whom set the records highest vote totals for their respective races. Public Service Commissioner – District 2 candidate Jim Sendelbach set the record for highest vote percentage for that post.

“The most important thing we can take away from these election results is the growth we have seen over prior cycles,” offered Daniel N. Adams, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Georgia. “To see growth across the board in terms of the number of new Libertarian voters is encouraging, and it gives us a base with which to move forward.”

The Libertarian Party is Georgia’s third largest political party and the only party in Georgia promoting fewer taxes, less government and personal liberty for all Georgians. To learn more, please visit www.LPGeorgia.com

Independent Political Report