Georgia Election Lawsuits

CGG lawsuits challenge GA Sec. of State and GA election practices

Updated Nov. 25, 2018

Please support our latest lawsuit  filed Friday night to bring reliable elections to Georgia.
Here is the press release. 
 
We just filed suit to contest the erroneous result in the Georgia Lieutenant Governor’s race. We are seeking a new election on the basis that the correct outcome cannot be known, as there was a significant inexplicable drop off in votes for the   Lt. Governor’s race although down ballot race totals were considerably higher. Material doubt is cast on the results of the election, creating the grounds for an election contest lawsuit. Lt. Governor is the second highest office on the ballot, and therefore expected to be the second most highly voted race.
 
Additionally, while the electronic touchscreen machines showed a 4%+ “under-vote” (not voting) for the Lt. Governor race, the paper mail ballots and provisional ballots showed no meaningful drop off. The clear implication is that machine programming caused some people to be unable to vote on the Lt. Governor race or that their votes were not counted.  We are collecting affidavits from numerous voters who experienced irregularities on the touchscreen machines while attempting to vote for Lt. Governor.
 
We are also challenging the use of the electronic voting system and asking that a new Lt. Governor election be conducted on paper ballots counted on optical scanners. The use of the touchscreen machines must be halted immediately. We have seen chaotic problems in the most recent elections---the very problems we have warned Georgia officials about for 18 months. No longer can the Secretary of State say that the problems are theoretical risks. Georgia voters have experienced them in their flawed November election.
 
Electronic pollbooks were also a significant source of disenfranchisement and voter confusion. We are seeking a court order to correct the inaccuracies in the voter registration records and pollbooks to stop the voter disenfranchisement of registered voters.
 
We are a very small organization and take no compensation for ourselves. But our legal bills are sizable, and all donations go to cover legal expenses. We accomplish a lot on a small budget.

Through donors’ help we have made great progress in 2018 in our two other GA pending lawsuits:
 
---most recently, the Court ordered Georgia counties to count hundreds (possibly thousands) of absentee ballots that were merely missing the voters’ date of birth, or with a mismatching signature that could be cured. After the Court order, the Secretary of State was persuaded to issue guidance to counties to permit even more categories of mail ballots to be counted. (Our Martin v Kemp case)
 
--in September, Judge Totenberg found that we have the right to sue the State regarding the vulnerable DRE system, and indicated the likelihood that we will be successful on the merits of the case. She issued a scathing review of the broken voting system, saying that it infringed on voters’ constitutional rights. The state has appealed the ruling on our right to sue them. This case (Curling v Kemp) will be tried in 2019.
 
Please give what you can to fight for fair elections in Georgia. The efforts have impact nationwide as well. Your gift to our 501(c)(3) organization is tax deductible.
 
 ===================================================================
PREVIOUS POSTS FOR REFERENCE: 

Coalition for Good Governance (“CGG”) helped 5 voters file a lawsuit against Sec. of State Brian Kemp, the State Election Board and Gwinnett County election officials. See our press release, with a link to the complaint filed with the court.
CGG Press release on Martin v Kemp  (Mail ballot lawsuit)

Georgia’s laws permit rejecting voters’ mail ballots for miniscule technical errors such as putting the current date of signing rather than the voters’ birthdate,or signing the ballot envelope on the wrong line. The case was filed October 15, 2018.

The mail ballot case grew out of the longer term election security case that CGG initiated against Brian Kemp and other officials for their use of un-auditable voting machines. Your donations will go directly to legal fees and expenses for these two efforts to vindicate voters’ rights. We take no compensation for our volunteer work. But legal expenses are high for these efforts. We need voters to invest. See the description of our core election security case that follows.

On October 12, Rachel Maddow told her viewers about the Georgia scandals that Coalition of Good Governance has been fighting since summer 2017. She mentioned our case, calling it the “good government group’s lawsuit!”  She detailed the appalling findings of cybersecurity investigations.

WATCH: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reveals the horrible truth about Georgia’s corrupt election system 

Rachel was shocked that the response of the Georgia government was to wipe the servers’ memories so that no further information about possible hacking could come to light. She also portrayed Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s partisan attacks to disenfranchise nonwhite voters via misuse of law enforcement and with the cooperation of the state legislature.
Secretary of State Kemp, who controls Georgia’s entire election system including every voting machine and tabulating computer, is running in a close race for governor.

The press does not fully understand how easily SOS Kemp (or unknown colleagues) can rig the electronic machines without a trace. That is what Coalition for Good Governance is fighting. The Court determined that voting on the system was unconstitutional but that ordering a switch to paper ballots without more preparation time could also burden the right to vote.

Case 1:17-cv-02989-AT Sept 17 2018 

Coalition for Good Governance is a small, volunteer-run, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization focused on election transparency and verifiability. Donations will help with the continuing fight to bring election integrity to Georgia.

Because of the disenfranchisement as described by Rachel and many Georgians, we are asking the Court to require electronic pollbook corrections and security. In addition, we are asking the Court to require paper ballots for the December runoff election and the 2019 elections, while we await the 2019 hearing on the merits of the case.

Requests for absentee (paper) ballots are spiking, so we know our legal work is having a good effect.

Support Coalition for Good Governance and keep the momentum going to protect the vote in Georgia. I am asking you because we truly need support from donors like you.  Be part of our effort to bring paper ballots to Georgia voters. Our projects are volunteer driven, but we need your help to cover our legal costs. We take no compensation. We are frugal with our resources. If you have already given, thank you!