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Requests new election { August 20 2002 } 4th District Democratic Voters Request New Election Without Republicans
Filed on March 4th of this year, the following amended complaint of
Democratic voters of Georgia's 4th Congressional District asks to void the
August 20, 2002 election based on constitutional and Voting Rights Act
violations. The plaintiffs base their case on statements by none other than
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as well as violations of the Voting
Rights Act. In the August 20th election, white Republican voters crossed
over, creating the equivalent of an all-white primary. The Justice
Department today has under investigation the racial impact of nonpartisan
elections. (See article 1 attached below.) The open primary statute in
Georgia has never been subjected to scrutiny under the Voting Rights Act
because it was enacted in 1964, just before passage of the Voting Rights Act,
which would have required a test for disparate racial impact.
The Election
* Statistical analysis of that election shows an unprecedented number of
Republican crossover votes in the Democratic Primary. The estimate is of at
least 47,000+;
* Over 90% of that Republican crossover vote was white;
* Democrats and Blacks overwhelmingly voted for McKinney;
* Whites and Republicans overwhelmingly voted for Majette.
* White turnout was 38%; Black turnout was 32%.
* Phil Kent , Executive Director of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, brags
to the Washington Times, "It was the white Republicans who had the say-so
here."
* Josh Ruebner, Executive Director of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel
comments to the Washington Times, "This is a dangerous dynamic. Jews are the
ones who started picking off African-American politicians because of their
views on the Middle East, and that was undue meddling. It is doing
irreparable harm to relations with African-Americans."
The Plaintiffs
* Plaintiffs are five black 4th District Democratic voters;
* White Democratic voters will file an amicus brief in support of the
complaint.
The Lawsuit
* Alleges violations of the Voting Rights Act and that crossover voting is a
violation of First Amendment Constitutional rights, as outlined by the
Supreme Court in California v. Jones and Gore v. Bush.
* In 2000, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote:
"[A] single election in which the party nominee is selected by nonparty
members could be enough to destroy the party. . . . The ability of the party
leadership to endorse a candidate is simply no substitute for the party
members’ ability to choose their own nominee. . . . In any event, the ability
of the party leadership to endorse a candidate does not assist the party rank
and file, who may not themselves agree with the party leadership, but do not
want the party’s choice decided by outsiders. . . . There is simply no
substitute for a party’s selecting its own candidates. . . . [I]t seems to us
less unfair than permitting nonparty members to hijack the party. As for
affording voters greater choice, it is obvious that the net effect of this
scheme–indeed, its avowed purpose–is to reduce the scope of choice, by
assuring a range of candidates who are all more ‘centrist.’"
The Democratic voters who filed this lawsuit have beaten back
malicious and deceitful attacks from the local press and disingenuous
Motions to Dismiss from the State of Georgia, the Republican and Democratic
parties, and local authorities charged with carrying out fair elections. The
plaintiffs have prevailed on every front thus far.
Contents:
1. Associated Press: Justice Department probing Teaneck election system
2. Washington Times: McKinney Blames Ouster on Republican Crossover
3. Letter from David Kahn and Jeffrey Snyder re: Hilliard and McKinney
4. Sample page from compilation of Hilliard donors as result of letter, AIPAC
publicity
5. Creative Loafing April 9, 2003: Truth in Exile, Remember Cynthia
McKinney?
6. Amended Complaint Filed in US District Court March 4, 2003
1.
Justice Department probing Teaneck election system
April 8, 2003, 9:24 AM EDT
TEANECK, N.J. -- The U.S. Department of Justice has started a preliminary
investigation to determine whether the town's present form nonpartisan
elections has impeded black candidates from being elected to the Township
Council and Board of Education.
Lawyers with the agency's Civil Rights Division have interviewed several
former Teaneck candidates and office holders during the past few weeks, and
also have spoken with some civil rights leaders. Investigators also want
township voting records and meeting minutes dating back to 1990.
The probe, which will determine whether a formal investigation is necessary,
was initiated by a complaint filed after last year's council race, in which
four incumbents formed a slate to defeat two Democratic challengers.
Town officials learned of the probe in January, and said they were working to
supply the requested documents. Federal officials, though, would not say who
filed the complaint or provide details about it.
"(The investigation) is in the preliminary stages," Jorge Martinez, a Justice
Department spokesman, told The Record of Bergen County for Tuesday's
editions. "There is still a lot of things we would have to go over before any
determination is made."
Several blacks have previously served on the council and the school board in
recent years, but none currently serve on the council and the school board's
one black member is not seeking re-election. Teaneck has more than 11,000
black residents, almost 30 percent of the population.
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
2.
The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
McKinney blames ouster on Republican crossover
Steve Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published 8/22/2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney early yesterday blamed Republican voters in her
speech conceding defeat in the Georgia Democratic primary.
"We saw massive Republican crossover into the Democratic primary, and it
looks like the Republicans wanted to beat me more than the Democrats wanted
to keep me," Mrs. McKinney told her supporters after conceding defeat.
"She is right for the first time in a while," said Phil Kent, president
of Southeastern Legal Foundation, which has been a longtime critic of the
five-term incumbent congresswoman. "It wasn't even a Jewish-Palestinian
thing. It was the white Republicans who had the say-so here — me included."
Republicans in Georgia's 4th District swarmed the polls to cross over
and oust Mrs. McKinney in favor of a more centrist Democrat, former state
judge Denise Majette. The challenger won 58 percent to 42 percent.
It was thought that Mrs. McKinney's outspoken pro-Palestinian and
pro-Muslim rhetoric would be her demise, as Jewish money both national and
local flowed into the Majette campaign. Meanwhile, Arab donors were solicited
by the McKinney campaign with some success, although Mrs. Majette outraised
her opponent by roughly $500,000.
But it was the ire of the Republicans that sent Mrs. McKinney packing.
Georgia has an open primary that allows people to vote for either party.
At some polling areas in the district, Republican voting booths sat
unused for up to an hour while voters stood in line at the Democratic booths.
"I look at our data and it tells me the story," said Dale Ranta,
chairman of the DeKalb County Republican Party. "It looks like 95 percent of
the total vote was Democrat in a county that is 60-40 Democrat."
Mr. Ranta said some DeKalb Republicans even volunteered for Mrs. Majette
and attended her victory celebration Tuesday night.
"There were a lot of people who considered [Mrs. McKinney] just plain
unrepresentative of this district," said Mr. Ranta, who cast his ballot in
the Republican primary. "For the people who crossed over, it was worthwhile.
She stirs so much emotion."
The Republican crossover vote may have even helped jeopardize the career
of Mrs. McKinney's father, veteran state Rep. Billy McKinney, who faces a
Sept. 10 runoff election after receiving 48 percent of the vote in a
three-way Democratic primary.
Before the election, Mr. McKinney said the effort against his daughter
was a Jewish plot. "Jews bought everybody. That's J-E-W-S," he said.
Mrs. Majette had not counted on Republican votes, said her campaign
manager Roland Washington.
"It was just an anti-McKinney sentiment that transcended party lines,"
Mr. Washington said. "It was never our strategy to get that Republican vote."
Mrs. McKinney angered Republicans, among others, when she said President
Bush may have ignored warnings about September 11 and benefited financially
from the war on terrorism.
Ultimately, "this was a vote that was anti-McKinney rather than
pro-Majette," said Charles Bullock III, a political scientist at the
University of Georgia. "She had finally turned people off enough to vote
against her."
Mrs. McKinney's pro-Palestinian views may also have contributed to her
defeat, although there were few Jewish voters in her district.
"She made herself the poster child for anti-Israeli sentiment," said one
member of a Jewish political action committee in Washington, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity. "She tried to inflame this idea that Jews are out to
get blacks — even though her opponent was black."
But McKinney supporter Joshua Ruebner, executive director of Jews for
Peace in Palestine and Israel, said the Georgia Democrat spoke only of Middle
East peace and warned of political repercussions.
"This is a dangerous dynamic," he said. "Jews are the ones who started
picking off African-American politicians because of their views on the Middle
East, and that was undue meddling. It is doing irreparable harm to relations
with African-Americans."
Copyright © 2002 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
04/24/2002 13:45 12123880001 - PAGE 02
DAVID KAHN AND JEFFREY SNYDER
Re: Artur Davis for Congress 2002
Dear
We have a very important opportunity in Alabama to help challenger Artur
Davis (D) defeat an incumbent five term congressman, Earl Hilliard (D-AL-7)
who has not been a friend of the U.S./Israel relationship. Ten years ago the
Alabama Jewish Community was extremely helpfu1 to Earl Hilliard in his first
e1ection. That was the beginning and the end of our relationship.
During his five terms in office, Hilliard has been hostile on our issues and
has allied himself with the Arab community, including several unauthorized
trips to Libya to meet with Khadafy. His most recent statement on our issue
was: "I see more and more blacks identifying with Arabs and Muslems than I do
with Jews, they see Arabs being treated differently from other people. They
identify with them on their history of discrimination." When asked if Jews
haven't been treated similarly, Hilliard explained, "but you don't see it
now, particularly when you see Arabs profiled like we are."
Hilliard has been extremely dangerous to not only our community but the
U.S./Israel relationship. As Chairman of the Black Caucus he has lobbied
members of the Black Caucus to oppose initiatives supporting Israel together
with Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (DGA-4) from Atlanta, GA.
Two years ago in 2000, Artur Davis challenged Earl Hilliard in the Democratic
Primary. Artur took 34% 0f the vote and Hilliard won with 54% of the vote.
Artur ran an under funded campaign Since then the district has been re-drawn
with some of Hilliard's strongest counties removed and replaced with areas
that Artur ran stronger in.
We have enclosed a Middle East position paper from Artur and his background
information as well as information on Hilliard. Also enclosed are newspaper
editorials against Hilliard from every major newspaper in Alabama. We have an
opportunity to make a major impact. While we know that each of you are
already involved in other races, this race is important enough to ask for
your help.
It is important that Earl Hilliard be defeated in the June 4th Alabama
Democratic Primary. Money is the deciding factor on who will win this primary
race. That is why we are asking you to send a check made payable to: Artur
Davis for Congress in the amount of $1, 000. If you can't send $1,000 at this
time, please consider a contribution of $500, or $250 and mail it to David
Kahn in the enclosed self-addressed envelope. We appreciate your help on this
important campaign and look forward to seeing you at the upcoming policy
conference.
Sincerely, Sincerely,
David Kahn Jeffrey Snyder
(205) 986-0801 (301) 233-2874
Enclosures
4.
Composite of Contributions Page 1 of 19
Contributor Date Amount Location
Abraham, Lynn 6/4/2002 $500 New York, New York 10021
Abrams, Diane Schulder Ms 4/30/2002 $250 New York, NY 10028
Abrams, Robert 5/15/2002 $250 New York, NY 10028
Abroms, Harold 6/5/2002 $1 ,000 Birmingham, Alabama 35223
Abroms, Harold Mr. 12/29/2001 $1 ,000 Birmingham, AL 35223
Abroms, Harold Mr. 6/5/2002 $1 ,000 Birmingham, Alabama 35223
Abroms, James 5/19/2002 $500 Birmingham, Alabama 35223
Abroms, Judith Ms 6/5/2002 $1,000 Birmingham, Alabama 35223
Ackerman, Judy Ms 3/24/2002 $250 Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Ackerman, Judy Ms 5/2/2002 $250 Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Adler, Dean Mr. 6/12/2002 $1,000 Gladwyne,Pennsylvania 1903
Adler, Seymour Mr. 4/15/2002 $250 Teaneck, NJ 07666
Agus, Charles Mr. 4/29/2002 $250 Tenafly, NJ 07670
Agus, Nicole S. Mrs. 4/29/2002 $1, 000 New York, NY 10128
Agus, Nicole S. Mrs. 6/6/2002 $1 ,000 New York, New York 10128
Agus, Raanan A. Mr. 4/29/2002 $1 ,000 New York, NY 10128
Agus, Raanan A. Mr. 6/6/2002 $1,000 New York, New York 10128
Amir, Herta Mrs. 3/15/2002 $500 Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Angerman, Dorothy Mrs. 4/28/2002 $1 ,000 White Plains, NY 10605
Angerman, Irving Mr. 4/28/2002 $1,000 White Plains, NY 10605
Apolinsky, Harold 6/5/2002 $500 Birmingham, Alabama 35205
Apolinsky Harold Mr. 5/23/2001 $500 Birmingham, AL 35205
Arbesfeld, Hyman Mr. 4/19/2002 $500 New York, NY 10022
Arnow, Robert Mr. 4/22/2002 $1,000 Scarsdale, NY 10583
Aronov, Freddi .5/21/2002 $250 Birmingham, Alabama 35242
Aronov, Jake Mr. . 11/16/2001 $1,000 Montgomery, AL 36123
Aronov, Owen Mr. ., 11/16/2001 $1,000 Montgomery, AL 36111
Asher, Mary Jane Ms 1 0/19/2001 $1 ,000 Chicago, IL 60611
Asher, Susan Ms 3/5/2002 $1 ,000 Chicago, IL 60611
Austein, Eric Mr. 4/30/2002 $250 Lawrence, NY 11559
Avery , Richard Mr. 5/4/2002 $500 Marion, AL 36756
Bak, Harris Mr. 4/1/2002 $1,000 New Rochelle, NY 10804
Baker, Alice Mr. 3/5/2002 $500 Tucson, AZ 85716
Balsam, Craig Mr. 4/22/2002 $500 New York, NY 10014
Bark, C. Jack Mr. 4/24/2002 $250 San Diego, CA 92109
Barnett, Ayala Mr. 4/30/2002 $1,000 Jamaica, NY 11418
Baruch, Howard Mr. 5/1/2002 $750 Englewood, NJ 07631
Baruch, Rosalind K. Mrs. 5/2/2002 $250 Englewood, NJ 07631
Bassuk, Richard Mr. 5/1/2002 $1,000 Scarsdale, NY 10583
Battles, James 6/5/2002 $500 Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35405
Bayer, Gail Mrs. 4/18/2002 $1,000 Birmingham, AL 35243
Bayer, Harry Mr. 11/7/2001 $250 Birmingham, AL 35205
Bayer, Jeffrey Mr. 10/26/2001 $500 Birmingham, AL 35243
5.
NEWS & VIEWS | FISHWRAPPER 04.09.03
Greg Palast (Globalvision)
Truth in exile
U.S. reporter breaks Bush blockbusters -- on English TV
BY JOHN SUGG
Remember Cynthia McKinney? The conventional wisdom is that the outspoken
congresswoman was too abrasive and too extreme, and she got whacked by an
uprising of voters last November.
People who are a tad more sophisticated understand deeper doo-doo was
flowing. For example, Republicans crossed over in droves to vote in the
Democratic primary, an affront to the two-party system and, in general, to
democracy. Certainly, McKinney helped do herself in -- primarily by not
disowning her virulently anti-Semitic father.
All that aside, there's still an untold story. It's untold, anyway, if you
rely on the mainstream media, such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where
Editorial Page Editor Cynthia Tucker waged a highly personal attack against
McKinney in an effort to ensure that there would be only one Maximum Cynthia
in Atlanta.
The deeper story -- and it is a tale of a vast, mostly right-wing, conspiracy
-- has been printed in one of the hottest books on the newsstands, The Best
Democracy Money Can Buy, by American-journalist-turned-BBC-expatriate Greg
Palast.
The hell-raising journalist is coming to Atlanta April 15, where he'll speak
at a Creative Loafing-sponsored talk at Emory University (7 p.m., White Hall,
room 208).
Some of the tastiest passages in Palast's book have compelling local
interest.
Consider: He went after Atlanta's Southern Co. for keeping two sets of books
that enabled it to charge customers for $61 million in spare parts that had
not been used. A Southern senior veep, Jake Horton, was going to blow the
whistle on this and other company misdeeds such as illegal payments to
politicians. But, on April 10, 1989, Horton boarded a corporate plane to go
to a meeting where he planned to confront Southern's top brass -- and the
plane exploded. Why the big boom? No one knows -- or is saying.
Palast's reporting almost resulted in the criminal indictment of the company
-- until Bush the First had his Justice Department intervene and declare that
all of the alleged wrongdoing was kosher because an accounting firm had OK'd
the cooked books. That accounting firm was none other than Arthur Andersen,
whose ill fame would peak a decade later in the Enron meltdown.
"Jake's death and the failure to indict Southern and Andersen in 1989 marked
the radical turning point, albeit unseen at the time, in the way corporate
America would do business," Palast comments in his book.
That turn would lead to the massive corruption of Enron, Global Crossing and
the other mega-crooks.
"Since I reported on Southern Company," Palast told me, "we've seen all that
has happened in the corporate world. Southern was at the cutting edge, and
the final prize sought by [Enron's] Kenny Lay and his pals was throwing the
rules out the window. In the old days, crooks like Al Capone would buy a
judge. But that's tough, paying off one judge at a time. So the new crooks
just buy the whole government and get new laws."
Back to McKinney, Palast points to a New York Times article from last
November that declared the congresswoman had lost the support of Atlanta's
"prominent black figures."
"But," Palast told me, "Julian Bond said that wasn't him. He doesn't get
involved in races. And Martin Luther King III said to me, 'No, not me.' So
who was it and why did she allegedly lose their support?"
The answer lies with a Canadian gold mining outfit called Barrick Corp. It
takes a bit of explaining.
In the final days of the first Bush regime, the Interior Department adopted
policies that enriched Barrick -- and cost U.S. taxpayers -- "a cool billion
or so," according to Palast. In 1995, Barrick hired Bush I as "honorary
senior adviser" -- but of course claimed there had been no deal. (When Bush
the Younger became president in 2001, one of his first deeds was to dump
rules on gold mining waste disposal -- which is likely to cause irreparable
environmental harm. One of the biggest beneficiaries is, of course, Barrick.)
Barrick in 1999 acquired another Canadian mining company, Sutton Resources,
which was seeking to grab land in Tanzania from small-time prospectors. In
his book, Palast reports: "In August 1996, Sutton's bulldozers, backed by
military police firing weapons, rolled across the goldfield, smashing down
worker housing, crushing their mining equipment. ... About 50 miners were
still in their mine shafts, buried alive."
Not good public relations.
Bush left Barrick in 1999 -- it was probably a risky affiliation as his son's
campaign ramped up. Replacing Bush was Atlanta's own Andrew Young, who joined
another of the city's favorite sons, Vernon Jordan. In an interview, Palast
was brutal. "Andy Young is pocketing blood money from African gold." (Young
did not return a detailed message asking about his relationship with
Barrick.)
McKinney, meanwhile, chaired congressional hearings that had launched a probe
of Barrick's activities in the Congo, where the firm was accused of, as
Palast says, "stoking the civil war." McKinney was also fighting to protect
the life of a whistleblower in the Tanzania episode.
So, who were the black leaders that helped torpedo McKinney? "Andy Young and
Vernon Jordan," replies Palast. "No one has held them accountable." (McKinney
did not respond to e-mail messages.)
Palast is most famous for his reporting on the Florida election meltdown in
2000. "It's the story they couldn't do in America," Palast told me. The
election story got a shot of juice at the March 23 Academy Awards ceremonies,
when Michael Moore correctly described the Bush presidency as "fictitious"
and said the invasion of Iraq was "for fictitious reasons."
The self-righteous, flag-wrapped rabid right got a royal wedgie.
One of the truths the neocons and the radio ignorance brigade most fear is
that, in a real sense, George Bush is a fictitious president. I sure as hell
feel that people shouldn't get over it. Our nation was robbed of its
democracy in November 2000. Our right to chose our leader was usurped, a far
greater sin by a billion fold than Bill Clinton diddling Monica.
Here's the background on what Moore told the Oscar ceremony -- and on what
Palast uncovered.
First, I'm not talking about hanging chads or butterfly ballots. The American
media's least reported Huge Story of the decade -- ignoring the largely
unreported fabrications used to justify the Iraq invasion -- was the
intentional disenfranchisement of 57,700 Florida voters by Jeb Bush and Chief
Elections Subverter Katherine Harris.
Palast reported his accounts for the BBC, English newspapers and progressive
American journals such as The Nation.
The Bush-Harris shit list supposedly tagged people who had been convicted of
felonies and, therefore, were ineligible to vote in Florida. Yet, included
among the 57,700 names were people listed as being "convicted" in 2007. That
isn't a typo. Perhaps the Bushies had seen a sneak preview of Minority Report
and were nailing people of future crimes. Palast found 325 time-traveling
bandits on the Bush-Harris list.
More serious -- an analysis of the 57,700 names showed 90.2 percent were
innocent of any crime that could have kept them from voting. Most on the list
were black and Hispanic, and most were Democrats. BBC researchers projected
that Al Gore lost 22,000 votes as a result of the bogus purge -- plenty of
margin for him to have won Florida and the presidency.
Later, Palast turned up another scrub list, about 40,000 names of people who
had been convicted of crimes but who had had their rights restored --
Bush-Harris had axed them also, which was patently illegal. Most would have
undoubtedly voted Democratic.
The purge list was compiled by an Atlanta-based company, ChoicePoint, that is
closely tied to Republican circles. Palast exposed that ChoicePoint failed to
do even basic checking of the list -- despite charging taxpayers curiously
high fees topping $4 million.
Palast, in his book, states:
"Was ChoicePoint paid to get it wrong? Every single failure -- to verify by
phone, to sample and test, to cross-check against other databases -- worked
in one direction: to increase the number of falsely accused voters."
Eventually a ChoicePoint official testified to a congressional committee --
not that you read about it in your daily newspaper -- that "ChoicePoint told
state officials that the rules for creating the list would mean a significant
number of people who were not ... a felon would be included in the list."
According to Palast, when ChoicePoint tried to draw Bush-Harris attention to
the problem, the company was told to forget about it.
If you followed the vote scandal that led to Bush's coup, the last press
report you probably remember came about two months after 9-11. Newspapers,
with their own media consolidation agenda before the Bush administration,
clearly were angst-ridden at the thought of offending the appointed
president. Add to that the spike in Bush's post-9-11 popularity, and what
should have been a milestone in precision journalism became, instead, a
spectacle of media slavishness. A media consortium concluded that even had
the recount been concluded, Bush would have won. The radically Republican
Tampa Tribune editorial page, for example, crowed on Nov. 14, 2001:
"Exhaustive media ballot recount confirms Bush victory over Gore."
Actually that story, too, was false. Only by a highly selective set of rules
could the lapdog media construct a model where Bush won. But, far more
important, the media consortium focused on the ballot-chad issues -- and
totally ignored the more than 90,000 voters denied their right to vote.
Dubya, if you recall, won Florida by a 537-vote plurality.
Had Bush-Harris not devised a technological scheme to impose voting apartheid
in Florida, Gore would easily have scored enough votes to sit in the White
House.
Epilogues
On May 30, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft set in motion the snooping on
private citizens using commercial databases -- even when there is no reason
to suspect criminal conduct. ChoicePoint, as one of the biggest such
databases -- and despite its frightening record of inaccuracy in Florida --
will reap a windfall.
McKinney in 2001 launched a congressional investigation of the Florida
election and summoned ChoicePoint executives to testify. It wasn't long after
that the assaults on her began. The most infamous was the claim that she had
questioned whether Dubya had knowledge of 9-11 before it happened, and that
he didn't act because his dad and cronies were going to make bundles off the
war machine.
The truth was that McKinney quite accurately predicted -- months before it
broke in the press -- that Bush had extensive intelligence on likely
terrorist attacks and failed to act. And McKinney was equally accurate in
saying that Bush insiders would reap windfalls from slaughter.
However, nowhere did McKinney ever link the two statements. Palast has vowed
to eat an entire AJC at the April 15 speech if the paper's Tucker can come up
with a transcript that shows McKinney said Bush tanked 9-11 intelligence so
that poppy Bush and friends could prosper. That's a meal that will never
happen.
Passages from Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy are posted at
atlanta.creativeloafing.com/suggreport.html.
Senior Editor John Sugg -- who says, "For the neocons to get their movement
started, it took lots of tools and cranks" -- can be reached at 404-614-1241
or at john.sugg@creativeloafing.com.
04.09.03
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6.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
ATLANTA DIVISION
E. RANDEL T. OSBURN,
LINDA DUBOSE,
BRENDA LOWE CLEMONS,
DOROTHY PERRY, and
WENDELL MUHAMMED,
Plaintiffs,
vs. CASE NO. 1:02CV2721-CAP
STATE OF GEORGIA,
SONNY PERDUE, Governor of Georgia,
CATHY COX, Secretary of State of Georgia,
DEKALB COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS AND REGISTRATION,
GWINNETT COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS AND REGISTRATION,
LINDA LATIMORE, DeKalb County Supervisor of Elections,
LYNN LEDFORD, Gwinnett County Supervisor of Elections,
and GEORGIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY,
Defendants.
AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR EQUITABLE RELIEF UNDER THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT AND THE
UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
Pursuant to the Court's order of February 26, 2003, granting the
Plaintiffs' Motion To
Amend the Complaint, the Plaintiffs hereby file this amended complaint.
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
1.
This is an action to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973,
et seq. This action alleges that the crossover voting of Republicans in the
August 2002 Democratic Primary in the Fourth Congressional District of
Georgia impermissibly diluted, diminished, and interfered with the rights of
African-American voters on account of race. This action also alleges that
the maintenance of an open Democratic primary by the State of Georgia and
malicious Republican crossover voting in the August 2002 Democratic Primary
in the Fourth Congressional District of Georgia violated the association
rights preserved under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
and guaranteed to the Plaintiffs through the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments and in contravention of the rights protected by 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
The complaint also alleges intentional discrimination by the Defendants
against the Plaintiffs and other African-American voters in the Fourth
Congressional District of Georgia on account of their race.
2.
This Court has jurisdiction to hear this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331,
1343, and 1367. This action for declaratory and injunctive relief is
authorized by 28 U.S.C. § 2201 and 2202, and by Rules 57 and 65, Fed. R. Civ.
P. Venue is proper in the Northern District of Georgia pursuant to 28 U.S.C.
1391(d).
THE PARTIES
3.
Plaintiffs E. RANDEL T. OSBURN, LINDA DUBOSE, BRENDA LOWE CLEMONS, DOROTHY
PERRY, and WENDELL MUHAMMED are African-American Democratic registered voters
in the Fourth Congressional District of Georgia who voted in the August 2002
Democratic Party primary.
4.
Defendant STATE OF GEORGIA is one of the 50 United States of America and its
laws require that the state's major political parties' candidates be chosen
in open primaries. It is under the auspices and control of the State of
Georgia that the Democratic Primary in the Fourth Congressional District of
Georgia is conducted. Defendant SONNY PERDUE is the Governor of Georgia as
of January 13, 2003.
5.
Defendant CATHY COX is the Secretary of State of Georgia and is sued herein
in her official capacity. Ms. Cox has the obligation under Georgia law of
overseeing elections in the state and, consequently, in the Fourth
Congressional District of Georgia. She also has the duty of consolidating
the returns from the counties that comprise the Fourth Congressional District
of Georgia and certifying election results. Complete relief cannot be
accorded in this matter without the presence of Ms. Cox.
6.
Defendant LINDA LATIMORE is the DeKalb County Supervisor of Elections and is
responsible for conducting elections in that county, one of two counties
comprising the Fourth Congressional District of Georgia. Ms. Latimore is also
responsible for registering voters in DeKalb County and keeping records of
those registrations. Complete relief cannot be accorde
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