Posted on 10/06/2002 1:39:42 PM PDT by raybbr
Friday, October 04, 2002
ATLANTA — Arguing that defeated Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney was the victim of a "malicious crossover" vote by Republicans, five DeKalb County voters asked a federal court Friday to throw out the results of the primary.
Democrat McKinney lost her bid for re-election to former Judge Denise Majette by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin on August 20. Majette faces Republican Cynthia Van Auken in November, but is expected to win in this heavily black Democratic district.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta and names as defendants, among others, Secretary of State Cathy Cox, the DeKalb and Gwinnett County elections supervisors and Majette.
The state of Georgia does not require voters to register by party and allows them to vote in the primary of their choice. Nevertheless, McKinney, who is black, is blaming Republicans for jumping the political aisle in droves to help her Democratic opponent, who is also black, to oust her.
The suit claims that black Democratic voters in the 4th District had their voting rights violated and interfered with by the crossover votes. It asks that those crossover votes be declared unconstitutional and invalid and that McKinney be declared the winner of the Democratic primary.
"The issue is that black Democratic voters in the 4th District had their voting rights interfered with and violated," said Atlanta lawyer J.M. Raffauf, who represents the five black plaintiffs.
"Malicious crossover voting occurs when one party invades another party's primary to sabotage that party's choice of its own nominee for political office," the lawsuit reads. "The Republican Party voters crossed over and affected the outcome" of the Democratic primary.
State officials pointed to the law Friday and said it was clear that Georgia voters can vote for whomever they want in the primaries; there are no restrictions on preferred political party affiliation.
"I am simply unaware of any provision of law that prohibits voters from making a choice as to which party primary they will participate in," said Chris Riggall, a spokesman for the secretary of state.
Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a Democrat, said Georgia's law "is crystal clear in its guarantee that a voter can walk into a polling place on primary election day and choose a ballot for which ever political party he or she chooses."
He added, "Georgia's open primary system has withstood previous legal challenges and I will vigorously defend the Aug. 20 election results."
Critics say that McKinney's loss was her own doing. During her five terms in office, she has often garnered national headlines for controversial comments, while generating criticism that she's lost touch with Georgia voters.
This year, she had accused President Bush of ignoring warnings of the Sept. 11 attacks because friends in the defense industry would profit from a war. She scolded former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for returning a Saudi prince's donation for Sept. 11 victims when the prince blamed U.S. Mideast policy for the attack, and then proceeded to ask the prince for the money to give to poor black neighborhoods.
McKinney has blamed outside Jewish organizations for funneling money to her opponent in response to the congresswoman's Palestinian support in the Israeli-Palestinian Middle East crisis.
Her father, a state legislator who was vocal in his opinion that Jews had ruined his daughter's re-election, was also defeated in his own re-election Sept. 10.
Raffauf said he recently talked with McKinney and that she approves of the lawsuit.
Since her defeat, the Green Party has courted McKinney to join them and seek that party's presidential nomination in 2004.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Of course there is no such term of Georgia law called "malicious crossover voting."
Just more bizarre paranoia from the perverse fantasy world of the Jew-hating racist and conspiracist, Cindy McKinney.
I swear, she and her followers are mentally ill. And they revel in it.
Man it would be so great if they do.
I would personally give her campaign a million bucks.
The more success she has....the less success the Democrats have.
She could never win the Presidency....but she could really help torpedo any Democrat that was trying to. She would effectively remove a great percentage of the black vote and GW can pull enough of the Latino vote on his own.
Divide and conquer my friends.
GO CYNTHIA GO!!!
We must remember that blatant hypocrisy is the RAT cult's strongest attribute. >
...Re-register for the general election and vote Democrat...
...in Ohio, you don't even have to re-register; you must be registered to vote, but only in the primaries are there different ballots, for which you have to "declare your party"...I'm only a "registered Republican" since 2000, my first primary vote, when I wished to vote for W as a counteraction to the Democrat McCainiacs...
'Course, I've always voted that way, by coincidence, but no one here ever asks you about it for "general elections"...
Furthermore, if I were a hapless Republican-leaner in McKinney's district, I sure as heck would vote for Majette as my legitimate choice!!!
By-the-by, to correct the spelling my post regarding the "Vimar Republic" it should read; "WEIMAR" Republic. For those who are interested, a Google search of the subject one will find the Nazi's and the Socialists of this time (early '30's) doing to this German republic what the Dems are trying to do to ours with political manuevers that would not shame the dictator of a "Bananna Republic".
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