Posted on 10/04/2002 2:11 PM Pacific by kcordell
[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 10/4/02 ] ELECTION 2002 DeKalb voters file suit to throw out results of McKinney-Majette primary
By BILL RANKIN Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Five DeKalb County voters today filed a federal lawsuit seeking to throw out the results in the Aug. 20 Democratic primary that handed Denise Majette a victory over incumbent Cynthia McKinney in the 4th Congressional District.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, says "malicious crossover" voting by Republicans in the primary violated the Voting Rights Act. The suit was filed against Secretary of State Cathy Cox, the DeKalb and Gwinnett county elections supervisors, Majette, the DeKalb Republican Party and the state Democratic and Republican parties.
Georgia does not require voters to register by party, and it allows them to vote in the primary of their choice. Before the election, some Republicans called on their fellow party members to vote in the Democratic primary to help ensure the controversial McKinney's defeat. Since the vote, she has repeatedly blamed them for her downfall, as well as state Democratic Party officials, whom she says aided Majette.
Majette faces Republican Cynthia Van Auken in November, but she is favored to win in the heavily Democratic district.
The suit asks that the crossover votes be declared unconstitutional and invalid and 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 plaintiffs. Raffauf said he had recently talked with McKinney and that she supports the litigation.
"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 said. "The Republican Party voters crossed over and affected the outcome" of the Democratic primary.
Comment by Inspectorette:
Can you believe it? (Of course you can - it's the Dems!) If you do a search in FR for "McKinney", you'll see a couple of threads on this late last week.