Posted on 06/17/2002 10:27:34 AM PDT by Jean S
Illegal electioneering and intimidation at a polling place by a political demagogue of the majority ruling party. A half-hearted "official investigation" by the state. A failure to prosecute the demagogue and send witness allegations before an impartial judge. Is this some movie script set in a one-party Third World country?
Unfortunately, it is occurring in Georgia. The brazen election law violations happened in the Stoneview polling precinct in DeKalb County on Election Day 2000. The demagogue/darling of the state's majority party is Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The failure to present the charges to an impartial judge or to prosecute is the edict of Attorney General Thurbert Baker. His partner in this cover-up is Secretary of State Cathy Cox and her rump party-dominated state elections board. (Surely the governor of Georgia, a Democrat, had nothing to do with this.)
More than a year had passed since various non-partisan, independent witnesses (let alone Republican observers) had given statements to Cox's investigators and the media about Cynthia McKinney illegally campaigning inside a polling place and using a bullhorn to urge voters in line to cast a ballot for her. Her father, state Rep. Billy McKinney (D-Atlanta) was also inside the polling place egging her on, and his conduct resulted in accusations of intimidating election officials.
Yet proceedings against the McKinneys stalled until soon after the Southeastern Legal Foundation filed an open records request to get the process moving in public view.
Accompanied by increased public scrutiny when the state's Inspector Clouseaulike investigators finally completed their report, the state elections board, to its credit, voted unanimously -- twice -- to send six serious violations to an administrative law judge for adjudication and sentencing. That should have been the end of Cox's role. The attorney general's office, in charge of the prosecution, should have done its duty. But it didn't happen.
On June 6, Cox presided over a hastily called state elections board meeting featuring an assistant attorney general asking for a "settlement" to be reached with the McKinneys. Attorney General Baker's flunky, Kyle Pearson, said, "It appears likely that, at the evidentiary hearing, the McKinneys would be able to produce other witnesses to testify that they observed no improper campaign activities by the McKinneys." Well, so what? "Conflicting testimony" occurs all the time in courtrooms. "Conflicting testimony" is the reason there are judges and juries. Even some Democrats present who heard that nonsense had trouble stifling a laugh.
Oh yes, about the so-called "settlement" pushed by Cox, Baker & Co. and ratified by the elections board with only one dissenting vote:
Assistant Attorney General Pearson stipulated that the McKinneys not admit they violated the election code but "agree they will refrain from such conduct in the future." What a joke! On the same day Pearson was piously proclaiming this reassurance, Billy McKinney was actually quoted as saying, "We were just trying to get as many Democrats into the polls as possible."
Georgia's attorney general has always been highly partisan. But after Cox was elected, I believed she would be an independent-minded secretary of state who would work to engender respect for the law and speak out for the integrity of the ballot box. I was wrong.
Will the U.S. attorney in Atlanta pursue the prosecution of the McKinneys that was shamefully derailed by the Cox-Baker political fix? Will the U.S. attorney now do his duty to vindicate the DeKalb County election officials and voters abandoned by the state's "public servants"?
FMCDH
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I wouldn't know about that, and I confess, I have the same feeling for the good people of Mass., South Dakota, Kalifornia, Maryland, Connecticut,....sheesh, this list is too long. (I'm not real pleased with my state of Colorado, either).
FMCDH
Yeah, just like the governor of Illinois, a Republican (I'm embarrassed to say), had nothing to do with the scandal that's swept up all his political cronies.
When are we going to vote these crooks out of office across the country? At least our governor knows how hated he is, he isn't running for another term.
If Cindy loses she could then become a target for prosecution but as long as she has the power of her office it's less likely, IMO.
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