Home > Gwinnett.talk > Archives > 2007 > March > 19
Monday, March 19, 2007
SOS to Kenney: County, Diebold didn’t steal your election
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, perhaps we can finally declare the 2006 4th district commission race over.
On Monday, the Georgia Secretary of State’s office rebuffed a complaint filed by John Kenney, that he wuz robbed.
Kenney, you may recall, was the Democratic opponent of Kevin Kenerly, in the November general election.
(We’re not sure if Kenerly knew that. After surviving a bruising primary race, the county commissioner seem to spend more time coaching his youth league football team than campaigning.)
After getting pummeled by Kenerly, Kenney filed a formal complaint with the Secretary of State.
Kenney’s allegation: “the Gwinnett County Board of Elections and Registration and Diebold Elections Systems modified and/or tampered with GEMS operational software, and altered the Gwinnett County election results.”
It was an interesting allegation. We figured Kenney lost because the 4th district is overwhelmingly Republican. But then, what do we know?
A preliminary investigation by Georgia elections officials found Kenney’s complaint groundless. But last week the state Elections Board voted for a independent review of the county election. That review was conducted by the Kennesaw State University’s Center for Election Systems.
On Monday, Secretary of State spokeswoman Vicki Gavalas, said the review found Kenney’s complaint also to be groundless.
“We knew where that was going before we even got started,” said Kenney, who complaint that the elections board gave him only five minutes to make his case. Kenney insists that the evidence is “substantial” that the 2006 vote from the top of the ballot to the bottom, had been tampered with.
Well John, there’s always 2008.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Gwinnett Insider
No matter how you slice it, it comes up Democrat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Recently, Hugh Floyd told us he had a plan to add two more members to the Gwinnett County Commission. Since then, the Democratic House member from Norcross has given us a couple of maps showing what he has in mind.
One map shows the existing four commission district seats. One of Floyd’s ideas is to add two new “superdistrict” seats to the current board of four district commissioners. One superdistrict would be made up of Districts 1 and 2, and the other would be made up of Districts 3 and 4.
The second map (the one that’s provoked the most fussing) would erase the existing lines and carve out six district seats. One of them likely would be represented by a Democrat. That’s gotten some of Floyd’s GOP opponents accusing him of trying to get a Democratic foothold on the now all-GOP board.
Floyd says he didn’t draw these maps, the nonpartisan state legislative reapportionment office did.
Some lawmakers said either of Floyd’s plans stand as much chance of getting passed by the state Legislature as John Kerry has of being elected governor of Georgia.
But others, including state Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville), say Gwinnett’s getting too big to be represented by four district commissioners and a chairman.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Gwinnett Insider
