THE PEACH STATE PATRIOT
C.O.S. GEORGIA NEWS
Paper Ballots in Georgia ?
Judge Amy Totenberg's 135 Page Ruling
Article by Brenda Heidman
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November 10, 2023 U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg issued a 135-page ruling that will allow the lawsuit filed by the Coalition for Good Governance and others, to go forward. The lawsuit was filed against Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger and members of the State Election Board. (Curling vs Raffensperger) The lawsuit states that the Georgia election voting system is a threat to voter rights and to remedy this threat voting machines must be replaced with hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots. A bench trial is scheduled for January 9, 2024.
November 18, 2023 Ricardo Davis (State Chairman of the Constitution Party of Georgia) and Garland Favorito (co-founder of VoterGA) provided an interesting and informative video review of the Judge Totenberg ruling. Click here to go to this video. The web page will provide you a Recording Link and a Passcode to watch it.
The video deserves watching in its entirety, but several points are highlighted here.
Ricardo Davis, go to the 1-hr 13-min 0-sec point in the video:
Ricardo Davis talks about who has responsibility to oversee elections. The Board of Elections and the Board of Commissioners of each county has this responsibility within their county. The counties are ultimately responsible for elections, not the Secretary of State.
Garland Favorito, go to the 1-h 15-m 30-sec point:
Garland Favorito talks about the courts scope of authority in this case. Even though the court may rule in favor of paper ballots, the court doesn’t have authority to enforce the ruling.
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Judge Totenberg, pp. 4-5,
“To be clear from the start, the Court does not have the legal authority to grant the broadest relief that Plaintiffs request in this case… it does not have the power to prescribe or mandate new voting systems (i.e., a paper ballot system) to replace the current, legislatively enacted system.” In other words, the court can rule in favor of the lawsuit but cannot force Georgia legislators to pass legislation. The state takes whatever action the state thinks it should take.
Garland Favorito, go to the 1-h 23-m 15-sec point: The Halderman report is validated by Judge Totenberg. Elsewhere in the ruling other cybersecurity experts are validated, as well as a statement that proponents for election reform are not conspiracy theorists, and more.
Garland Favorito, go to the 1-h 29-m 0-sec point: Inaction on the part of Georgia's elected officials and legislators regarding election integrity, harms the constitutional rights of voters.
Matt Rowenczak, go to the 1-h 55-m 0-sec point: Municipalities can run their own elections. He describes the success in the city of Milton using hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots that also included a cost saving for the city.
Ricardo Davis, go to the 2-h 4-m 50-s point: The county Board of Commissioners and the county Board of Elections must be united for paper ballots to be implemented.
As a result of this ruling, optimism prevails that the Secretary of State and the State Election Board will resolve the flaws in the voting system by replacing it with hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots.
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Knowing that trials can take months or years, knowing that the decision reached at the District Court level can be appealed, and knowing the disregard some state leaders and legislators have demonstrated towards paper ballots, it’s important that election integrity efforts continue at the county level and voters continue to contact their legislators.
Read Judge Amy Totenberg's full 135 Page Ruling here:
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2024 Strategy Meeting
The COS Georgia Annual Strategy Meeting was held in Savanah November 3rd - 5th. Don Gardner and his wife Ana Vergara graciously hosted the meeting at their home for the 2nd year in a row. As usual, the meeting was very well attended by regional and state leadership, as well as other dedicated volunteers.
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National President Mark Meckler even joined in the meeting remotely to present Region Captain Laura Roush with Challenge Coin #300 for her unwavering dedication to the COS mission. In 2016, Convention of States forged 300 Challenge Coins... limited-edition medallions engraved with Founding Father George Mason’s likeness. Minted to honor those who go above and beyond the call of duty, these coins were, for seven years, bestowed sparingly upon only the most deserving candidates. As of Saturday, November 4, 2023, the final coin was awarded to Laura Roush, Regional Captain in Georgia. As the original mold was destroyed, no such award will ever exist again.
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Great work was done and great fun was had by all. We hope you enjoy this short video that captured the event.
Loganville Town Hall Meeting
On November 11th the Loganville Town Hall Meeting hosted Garland Favorito as the guest speaker to talk about election integrity in Georgia.
Garland is a co-founder of VoterGA. It is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that has led the election integrity movement in Georgia for 16 years. It is dedicated to restoring the integrity of Georgia elections through verifiable, auditable and recount-capable voting. After the original Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) system was purchased in 2002 over written objections from Garland, VoterGA was formed and sued to ban the DRE system in 2006 on the grounds it could not produce verifiable, auditable or recount-capable results. In 2019 the U.S. District Court found the DRE system was unconstitutional and banned them from future use in Georgia.
Please enjoy the photos below of the town hall meeting.
Future Volunteers
Can Get Involved Here
Georgia is proud to be the first state to pass the Convention of States (COS) Resolution. Therefore, our volunteers work primarily to promote our Freedom, Federalism, and Fundamental Rights (F3) agenda at the state and local legislative levels.
For instance, our volunteers attend meetings in the districts where they live such as:
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School Board meetings
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City Council meetings
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Tax meetings
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Commissioner meetings
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Our volunteers then report back to the Georgia Leadership Team when there is a “Call to Action” needed. A volunteer may report that a school board will be voting on CRT or DEI, in which case leadership sends out emails and text messages to COS petition signers in that district requesting they attend and share their concerns.
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We have many positions on our team including:
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Management
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Administrative
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Clerical
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Information Research
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Communications
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Computers
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and, more
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No matter what your interests, no matter what your skill level, we have valuable volunteer work for you in COS. We’d like to talk to you to see what your interests are and work within your time constraints. We have something for everyone, and any amount of volunteer time spent, or work done is greatly appreciated.
Next Step
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If you are interested in becoming a COS Georgia volunteer, please fill out the form below. We will send you additional information to get you started based on the County and Zip Code in which you live.