...with a Past President of the "Georgia and Southeastern Feed and Grain Association."
Do you have any PROOF that they didn't steal this election? No, you wouldn't because an actual recount is impossible without a physical paper trail. :mad:
From Independent.co.uk, October 13, 2003
By Andrew Gumbel
Something very odd happened in the mid-term elections in Georgia last November. On the eve of the vote, opinion polls showed Roy Barnes, the incumbent Democratic governor, leading by between nine and 11 points. In a somewhat closer, keenly watched Senate race, polls indicated that Max Cleland, the popular Democrat up for re-election, was ahead by two to five points against his Republican challenger, Saxby Chambliss.
Those figures were more or less what political experts would have expected in state with a long tradition of electing Democrats to statewide office. But then the results came in, and all of Georgia appeared to have been turned upside down.
Barnes lost the governorship to the Republican, Sonny Perdue, 46 per cent to 51 per cent, a swing of as much as 16 percentage points from the last opinion polls. Cleland lost to Chambliss 46 per cent to 53, a last-minute swing of 9 to 12 points. Red-faced opinion pollsters suddenly had a lot of explaining to do and launched internal investigations. Political analysts credited the upset - part of a pattern of Republican successes around the country - to a huge campaigning push by President Bush in the final days of the race. They also said that Roy Barnes had lost because of a surge of "angry white men" punishing him for eradicating all but a vestige of the old confederate symbol from the state flag....
(clip)
...There were also big, puzzling swings in partisan loyalties in different parts of the state. In 58 counties, the vote was broadly in line with the primary election. In 27 counties in Republican-dominated north Georgia, however, Max Cleland unaccountably scored 14 percentage points higher than he had in the primaries. And in 74 counties in the Democrat south, Saxby Chambliss garnered a whopping 22 points more for the Republicans than the party as a whole had won less than three months earlier....
(more at link)
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Or here's part of a transcript of how CNN called it in November 6, 2002:
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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0211/06/se.01.html>
...
WOODRUFF: We have a surprising governor's race to call. And that is, here in the state of Georgia. This is a surprise because most people I know, and the experts we talked to thought that Roy Barnes, a Democrat, was going to hold on to this. But CNN is projecting that Sonny Perdue, the Republican challenger -- this means that all those visits by President Bush and all the effort that went into getting Saxby Chambliss elected to the Senate has spilled over and helped this little known outside of Georgia, Republican challenger to Roy Barnes. This is a surprise.
BROWN: I know the governor is surprised.
WOODRUFF: He certainly is.
BROWN: I know the governor is surprised. I think 24 hours ago, he felt pretty good about his chances. I don't know that -- someday we'll see the exit polling on this, but one of the issues, and it wasn't a main issue, but it was out there, was that Sonny Perdue wanted to hold a referendum on the flag. In the state of Georgia, there was, many of you will recall, controversy over the Confederate battle flag and how prominent a part it should play in the Georgia state flag. Governor changed that, made it a small part at the bottom part of the flag, and that's still an issue that's simmering, here. And in a close election, all issues matter a lot.
WOODRUFF: There were three Democrats elected governor in the South in 1998. It was Roy Barnes, here in Georgia. It was Don Siegelman in Alabama, who was considered to have a very tough race. And in...
GREENFIELD: Jim Hodges.
WOODRUFF: ... South Carolina, Jim Hodges. Jim Hodges, as we projected, has gone down to defeat. But this one, this was the one seat, governor seat, the Democrats were thought to hold on to.
I'm told that Roy Barnes spoke, just a short time ago to his -- Mr. Perdue. I'm sorry. Sonny Perdue spoke to his supporters, so let's listen to a little bit of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SONNY PERDUE (R-GA), GOVERNOR-ELECT: About five minutes ago, I had a call from the president of the United States, George W. Bush. He wanted me to congratulate you, the people of Georgia. About two minutes ago, I received a call from Governor Roy Barnes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOODRUFF: We are sitting here with our mouths hanging open. I mean, we -- it was believed -- I mean, we bought the conventional wisdom and that was that Roy Barnes was sailing, not sailing, but that he was going to be reelected.
GREENFIELD: You know, any surprises left? This is the surprise. This is the one, I think, no one saw coming, even as late as yesterday.
BROWN: I don't think we're breaking any confidences here. At a point, last night, we were talking to the governor, and he certainly wasn't cocky about the fact that he was going to win, but he felt good. They thought he'd win by a couple, three points maybe. And it turns out, he was wrong. It's that simple.
It is one of a series of events that have happened over the last six hours that, when you bundle them all together, you say, this has been a very good night for Republicans. Not a slam dunk, clear the tables sort of night, but a very good night, and at the White House, they are, no doubt, smiling....
(more at link)
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http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0211/06/se.01.html>