Honorable Cathy Cox of Georgia (25th Secretary of State of Georgia)

6/05/2020

Honorable Cathy Cox
c/o Office of Dean of Mercer University School of Law
Mercer University School of Law
Mercer University
1021 Georgia Avenue
Macon, GA  31207

Dear Honorable Cox,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I have a strong interest in learning history, social justice, and ethics reform. In these subjects, I like to learn the need for civil rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, have ethics reform to reduce corruption in government including elections, and many others.  Honorable Cox, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work when you served as 25^th Secretary of State of Georgia to be very inspiring to me.

In January 1999, I was amazed on how you made history on becoming the first woman to be elected to become 25^th Secretary of State of Georgia. When you served as 25^th Secretary of State of Georgia from 1999-2007, I truly appreciated on how you were a strong supporter of civil rights by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights, working with minority including women businesses to help them get funds in order to assist them to compete in the economy, and expressing the need for civil rights to be stronger to help protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities from being discriminated.  Expanded early voting to help voters be able to vote on ballot when they can’t make it on election day, increased absentee ballot to help assist people, people with disabilities, and other voters who can’t make it to the poling stations have access to vote, and funded more educational awareness to help educate people about how to vote or the importance to vote is common sense to improve voter’s rights.   To improve election results, I liked on how you implemented Universal electronic voting system to help count votes in different voting districts or polling stations to help people know who won the election or primaries.   On ethics reform, I like on how you pushed for a ban on gifts to staff members of secretary of state from lobbyists including lobbying groups to reduce corruption, worked with prosecutors to help investigate public officials who accept illegal bribes or are corrupt,  and supported expanding disclosure online for elections including campaigns to help voters know who is donating to a campaign.  Another thing that I liked about your work as Secretary of State of Georgia was how you establish Georgia Invest initiative to stop fraudulent telephone investment scams in order to protect citizens from being victims of fraud and expand on educational awareness to help teach people about ways to protect themselves from being victims of fraud or know different tips to help protect themselves from scams. After you left public service, I like on how you are a continuous strong supporter of civil rights including people with disabilities’ rights, express the need for ethics reform along with campaign finance reform to reduce corruption,  and heavily support voter’s rights.

Honorable Cox, I have autism with a learning disability.  Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased.  Your commitment to be a strong supporter of civil rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability. Also your work as 25^th Secretary of State of Georgia helps give me motivation to continue to learn history, social justice, and ethics reform.  My future goal is to someday work in these areas to help emphasize the need for civil rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, have ethics reform to reduce corruption in government including elections, and many others.

I strongly believe that you have made a great difference when you served in public service.  I’m very proud on how you worked hard to support civil rights, push for ethics reform, implement voter’s rights protection, and advocate for common sense ideas.  You have inspire me to work hard on my disability, learn about your work, and continue to learn different subjects.   Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a great difference, and inspiring me. Please continue to work hard to make a great difference and continue to advocate for common sense ideas.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

Georgia state flag that Honorable Cox sent me