The Diebold Factor

Walden "Wally" O'Dell, the president of Ohio�s very own �Diebold Election Systems Inc.� promised back in August of 2003 that he would "deliver" Ohio to Bush.

Ohio has been involved in an electronic voting machine controversy ever since - source.

Mother Jones offers some background on the Diebold Political Machine and the involvement of two �competing� companies both with deep and continuing ties to the Republican Party.

By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, March 5, 2004

Political insiders suggest Ohio could become as decisive this year as Florida was four years ago. Which is why the state's plan to use paperless touch-screen voting machines has so many up in arms.
...
Soccer moms and NASCAR dads come and go, but swing states are always in fashion. And this year, Ohio is emerging as the most fashionable of the bunch.

Asked recently about the importance of Ohio in this year's presidential campaign, one veteran of Buckeye State politics told Salon, "Ohio is the Florida of 2004."
Diebold's Political Machine

I think if "hanging chads"; "dimples" and "pregnant chads" were words we learned in 2000, the words "diebold"; paper record" and "electronic voting" will be the ones drilled into our consciousness this time round.

.

Most of the exit polls showed a strong Kerry turn out, and unusually large voter turn outs tend to favor democratic party... All the polls before the election showed a dead heat, yet Bush wins... Regardless of who you voted for, your vote is unlikely to count if cast on anything but a piece of paper...here's my take on why as posted in a previous thread...
Regardless of what party you support or who wins, this kind of crap has got to go! I got a couple of U2U's requesting to move this info to this post to keep it available...

Originally posted by twitchy
Even if we were to challenge the results in court, we wouldn't be able to get a good idea of what really happened because of a little term the courts call proprietary trade secrecy, in other words, the source codes
are simply not available for examination. In other words, they don't have to tell you jack doodley about their voting machines, even with a sopena. Ah but I digress lets examine a few points of interest here....
I am pulling alot of this information from my own research files which I have not saved in html format but text files, but I have cited my sources and found all this stuff on www.google.com... through the last two years...

www.thepeoplesvoice.org...
September 2, 2003
By Schuyler Ebbets
Two Republican dominated corporations, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), and Diebold Voting Systems, now control 80% of the vote count in the United States.

Reading this creeped me out so I started looking into it...

Ready or Not, Electronic Voting Goes National
By TOM ZELLER Jr., The New York Times
Sept. 19
The leader in the electronic voting machine market, Diebold, and its executives have given more than $400,000 to Republican interests since 2001....in the view of Michael Wertheimer, a computer security consultant with RABA Technologies, who was hired by the state of Maryland last year to conduct a mock hacking attack against the Diebold machines. A number of security holes were found, including one in the Microsoft operating system that runs the election software, which did not have up-to-date security patches. The flaws, Mr. Wertheimer said, could allow tampering and skewed election results. He also noted that in the presidential primary election last March, Maryland used software on its machines that had not been certified by independent testing authorities, and thus violated state law.

Is there a conflict of interest from the manufacturers of this technology? You bet your butt there is!
Don't believe me, let's see what Diebold themselves have to say about their political contributions by their own board and officers.... (FYI this information is almost extinct on the net now so get it while you can)

www.diebold.com...
Board of Directors
Louis V. Bockius III (2,4,5)
6/28/00 $15,000.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE - RNC
11/3/00 $10,000.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE - RNC
10/9/97 $1,000.00 � VOINOVICH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
10/9/97 $1,000.00 � VOINOVICH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
Christopher M. Connor Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The
Sherwin-Williams Company
5/22/00 $1,000.00 � VOINOVICH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
3/30/00 $1,000.00 � DEWINE FOR US SENATE
Gale S. Fitzgerald (2, 6)
President and Chief Executive Officer , QP Group, Inc.
7/12/00 $500.00 � NEW YORK REPUBLICAN FEDERAL CAMPAIGN COMM.
10/12/98 $200.00 � FRIENDS OF JOHN LAFALCE
10/18/99 $1,000.00 � BUSH FOR PRESIDENT INC
Donald R. Gant (1,3,5) Senior Director, The Goldman Sachs Group, L.P.
L. Lindsey Halstead (2,3,6) Retired Chairman of the Board, Ford of Europe
12/22/98 $500.00 � RNC REPUBLICAN NAT'L STATE ELECTIONS COMM.
1/23/97 $500.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE - RNC
5/27/97 $200.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE - RNC
10/31/97 $500.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE - RNC
12/28/99 $500.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE - RNC
3/7/01 $300.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE
6/12/01 $200.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE
11/27/01 $200.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE
1/24/02 $500.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE
Phillip B. Lassiter (1,3,6) Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive
Officer, Ambac Financial Group, Inc.
4/16/98 $250.00 � NAT'L REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMM.
9/21/98 $250.00 � NAT'L REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMM.
John N. Lauer (1,4,5) Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer,
Oglebay Norton Co.
10/10/00 $1,000.00 � DEWINE FOR US SENATE
8/23/00 $250.00 � REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE - RNC
3/17/97 $1,000.00 � VOINOVICH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
Walden W. O'Dell Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive
Officer, Diebold
2/14/01 $2,015.00 � RNC REPUBLICAN NAT'L STATE ELECTIONS COMM.
12/17/97 $1,000.00 � VOINOVICH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
1/30/01 $3,950.00 � RNC REPUBLICAN NAT'L STATE ELECTIONS COMM.
8/16/01 $500.00 � VOINOVICH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
12/17/97 $1,000.00 � VOINOVICH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
6/30/00 $1,000.00 � DEWINE FOR US SENATE
Eric J. RoordaFormer Chairman, Procomp Amazonia Industria Eletronica, S.A.
W.R. Timken Jr. (2,3,4) Chairman , The Timken Company
6/23/00 $50,000.00 � RNC REPUBLICAN NAT'L STATE ELECTIONS COMM.
6/8/01 $100,000.00 � 2001 PRESIDENT'S DINNER - NON-FEDERAL TRUST
3/14/01 $10,000.00 � RNC REPUBLICAN NAT'L STATE ELECTIONS COMM.
8/19/99 $15,000.00 � RNC REPUBLICAN NAT'L STATE ELECTIONS COMM.
11/3/00 $15,000.00 � RNC REPUBLICAN NAT'L STATE ELECTIONS COMM.
2/22/02 $1,000.00 � RELY ON YOUR BELIEFS FUND
6/12/02 $1,000.00 � OHIO'S REPUBLICAN SALUTE
Corporate Officers
Walden W. O'DellChairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive
Officer, Diebold
Wesley B. Vance Chief Operating Officer
8/16/01 $500.00 � VOINOVICH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE
Michael J. HillockPresident, Diebold International
11/18/97 $500.00 � FAIRCLOTH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE 1998
David Bucci Senior Vice President, Customer Solutions Group
11/18/97 $500.00 � FAIRCLOTH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE 1998
James L.M. Chen Vice President and Managing Director, Asia-Pacific
Warren W. Dettinger Vice President, General Counsel and Assistant
Secretary
11/18/97 $300.00 � FAIRCLOTH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE 1998
1/30/97 $250.00 � DEWINE FOR U S SENATE (2000)
Donald E. Eagon, Jr. Vice President, Global Communications & Investor
Relations
11/18/97 $300.00 � FAIRCLOTH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE 1998
Charee Francis-Vogelsang Vice President and Secretary
Larry D. Ingram Vice President, Procurement and Services
1/30/97 $250.00 � DEWINE FOR U S SENATE (2000)
11/18/97 $300.00 � FAIRCLOTH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE 1998
Dennis M. Moriarty Vice President, Customer Business Solutions
11/18/97 $300.00 � FAIRCLOTH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE 1998
Anthony J. Rusciano Vice President, National Accounts
11/18/97 $300.00 � FAIRCLOTH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE 1998
Charles B. Scheurer Vice President, Corporate Human Resources
11/18/97 $300.00 � FAIRCLOTH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE 1998
Ernesto R. Unanue Vice President and Managing Director, Latin America
Robert J. Warren Vice President and Treasurer
11/18/97 $300.00 � FAIRCLOTH FOR SENATE COMMITTEE 1998

OpEdNews.Com
by Amanda Lang
Guess Who's Going to Dinner with Diebold, Sequoia, and Electronic ES&S? The Groups Responsible for Insuring Electronic Votes Are Secure.by Amanda LangOpEdNews.ComWhen speakers from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) attend the August 24-28, 2004, Election Center's conference for federal and state election employees in Washington, DC, they will be participating in a huge conflict of interest as they eat, drink, and make-merry at the Diebold, Sequoia, and ES&S (voting machine vendors) sponsored events....

Remember the cancellation of elections fears that were brought up Well here's where that fiasco came from... The article continues stating...

OpEdNews.Com
by Amanda Lang
The EAC, supposedly an independent bipartisan agency, was appointed by President George W. Bush following the Election Fiasco of 2000, and is authorized by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to serve as "...a national clearinghouse and resource for the comparison of information" on various matters involving the administration of Federal elections. The EAC wants to be more than a clearinghouse apparently -- EAC Chairman, DeForest Soaries**, recently authored a letter to Homeland Security czar, Tom Ridge, requesting his agency be "the statutory authority to cancel and reschedule a federal election" if a terrorist attack is launched in the U.S. As a result, Ridge's office has requested that the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel analyze what legal steps would be needed to permit the postponement of the election were an attack to take place. **Soaries, a Bush appointee, two years ago was an unsuccessful GOP candidate for Congress.

Oh yeah, they also publically announced their affiliations...

THE INTERNATIONAL LANDSCAPE
October 20, 2003
From The Wilderness Publications
In an outrageous conflict with the public interest, Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell told Ohio Republicans this August that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." Even the BBC on October 8th, noted that Diebold and other systems used in California and elsewhere left the door wide open for tampering:news.bbc.co.uk... The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia reported on October 8th what Americans, and especially Californians were never told: that the electronic systems were "as flawed as chads."Excellent background research on what appears to be rampant and overtly criminal behavior by Diebold can be found at the following web sites:
www.blackboxvoting.org... www.rense.com... www.equalccw.com... Diebold is only one of many firms making voting software, and all of it seems have problems. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska ought to know. He used to chair a company, American Information Systems, which owns the largest company putting machines into US use, Election Systems and Software. But it's doubtful he's going to complain. Nebraska used his software in the 2002 election and he garnered 83% of the vote.

Are they secure? Have they been tested?

CA Sues Diebold For E-Vote
Machine False Claims
9-8-4
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said on Tuesday he would sue electronic voting machine maker Diebold Inc on charges it defrauded the state with false claims about its products. Secretary of State Kevin Shelley has said Diebold deceived California with aggressive marketing that led to the installation of touch-screen voting systems that were not tested or approved nationally or in California.

Why can't we just make a make a machine that will print a paper record of the votes? Good question, here let's ask Diebold...

Diebold email: �Make vote printouts too costly�
by Eric A. Smith and Free Press staffin J
ournal issue January-February 2004
January 8, 2004
An internal memo has just surfaced suggesting e-vote manufacturer Diebold planned to overcharge the state of Maryland and make voter printouts �prohibitively expensive.� An employee named �Ken� wrote the Jan. 3 letter suggesting the company charge Maryland �out the yin� if legislators insisted on printouts... He goes on to say �...any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive.�

Note he didn't say would be, or could be, but Should be?
But our vote still counts right? No, sadly they become "circumstantial" evidence of voter intent... The machine produces the only 'hard evidence'. Yes, that is in violation of US law, but hey who cares about the law, we have an election to rig... A great article here on the 'legality' of voting machines...

Faking Democracy - Americans Don't Vote, Machines Do, & Ballot Printers Can't Fix That
by Lynn Landes
April 7, 2004
The Free Press -- Independent News Media - National Issues
Fri Sep 17, 2004
In Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court said that a "legal vote" is one in which there is a "clear indication of the intent of the voter." Voting machines (lever, optical scan, touchscreen, the Internet, etc.) produce circumstantial evidence of the voter's intent, at best....
When voting machines are used, critical parts of the Voting Rights Act can't be enforced. Under Section 8 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.Code �1973f, Federal Observers are authorized to observe "... whether persons who are entitled to vote are being permitted to vote ...(and) whether votes cast by persons entitled to vote are being properly tabulated..."
Under "Prohibited acts" in �1973i, the "Failure or refusal to permit casting or tabulation of vote"...can result in civil and criminal penalties. "No person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse to permit any person to vote who is entitled to vote...(and) Whoever...knowingly and willfully falsifies or conceals a material fact... shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five year, or both."
Voting machines violate those provisions. Vote casting and tabulation take place inside of a box. Federal Observers can't observe "... whether persons who are entitled to vote are being permitted to vote ...(and) whether votes cast ...are being properly tabulated.." Voting machines by their very design "conceals a material fact."

But they wouldn't do that would they? That would be fraud...

Insurance for Electronic Votes
New York Times Editorial
Friday 23 July 2004
These inherent flaws are made worse by the reckless, and possibly illegal, actions of voting machine companies. This spring, California banned 14,000 Diebold voting machines because of allegations of "fraudulent actions" by the manufacturer.

Also bear in mind that the CEO of diebold said he would deliver state of Ohio to the president... Do you smell that?

[edit on 14-12-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

I live in Ohio and I used punch cards. I guess they're not using diebold everywhere.

Originally posted by Gools
I think if "hanging chads"; "dimples" and "pregnant chads" were words we learned in 2000, the words "diebold"; paper record" and "electronic voting" will be the ones drilled into our consciousness this time round.

Not round here. There was quite a bit posted around the Diebold topic and election fraud, but the participants were a handful and many would shrug it off without using their noggins to become more familiar with the problem.

Here's the best lead, a must if you are truly interested:

www.blackboxvoting.org...

To whet the interest of haxors and propellerheads:

"Diebold says altering the audit log cannot be done. Of course, we know a chimpanzee can't get into an elections office and play with the computer, but to demonstrate how easy it is to delete audit log entries, we taught a chimpanzee to delete audit records using an illicit "back door" to get into the program, Diebold told reporters it was a "magic show." Yet, Diebold's own internal memos show they have known the audit log could be altered since 2001!"

The potential fraud is subject to one humongous FOI submission that is detailed at the site. Enjoyable reading.

www.blackboxvoting.org...

Gools -

I know the article you quoted was written in 2003, so what was the outcome of the legal challenges:

... (the) determination lay with Ohio Court of Claims Judge Fred Shoemaker.

He heard closing arguments yesterday over whether Sequoia was unfairly eliminated by Blackwell midway through the final phase of negotiations.

Shoemaker extended a temporary restraining order in the case for 14 days, but said he hopes to issue his opinion sooner than that.

Also were all Parties allowed access to the electronic voting machines to verify that they were calibrated to zero at the start of voting?


B.

To whet the interest of haxors and propellerheads:

*blah blah blah*

www.blackboxvoting.org...


* double post. my modem access and an extra keytap made me inadvertently post twice *

[edit on 3-11-2004 by MaskedAvatar]

Wow! Last week I saw a documentary about the elections in Florida. This woman, I forgot her name, was in charge with the coordination of the election in Florida. Four years ago she got the blame of the huge percentage of votingerrors in her state because she had designed a votingbill which wasn't very clear.
Surprisingly enough this woman was still in charge although someone else will be replacing her within a couple of months. This time Florida would use electric voting machines and she showed a huge warehouse in which those votingmachines were located. It could well have been that these were all Diebolds!! It would have been very dumb to use those electronic voting machines in Ohio after a statement like this, so that's prolly the reason why they choose to use conventional votingbills (and the reason they were late).

I don't trust the Bush administration and this article proves why!



[edit on 3-11-2004 by Olafski]

I think I may have found the answer.

209.59.130.50...

Originally posted by Loki
I think I may have found the answer.

209.59.130.50...

heheheheh, thanks for clearing that up man

Wow! Last week I saw a documentary about the elections in Florida. This woman, I forgot her name, was in charge with the coordination of the election in Florida. Four years ago she got the blame of the huge percentage of votingerrors in her state because she had designed a votingbill which wasn't very clear.
Surprisingly enough this woman was still in charge although someone else will be replacing her within a couple of months

Her name is Katherine Harris. She then became a Congresswoman! *gasp*. What's even more surprising is that she was re-elected this time around too.... My fellow Floridians are not Denying Ignorance...

Originally posted by Bleys
Also were all Parties allowed access to the electronic voting machines to verify that they were calibrated to zero at the start of voting?

I really doubt that. But I have not been following the issue as closely as I should (Canada still uses paper ballots) so I don't know what the final outcome was of that specific court challenge.

The first article was just to show that the president of Diebold made his promiss. The really damning information about links to the Republicans is in the Mother Jones article and in twitchy's post.

This is an issue about the integrity of the democratic process. It seems fine with repubs as long as they keep winning but I don't think this is a purely partisan issue.

I posted this not to contest the election but to make people aware that this morning there is absolutely no way to check the integrity of the voting results for any candidate in certain counties and jursdictions.

And as MA has stated Bev Harris' site Black Box Voting is the best source on all of this information.
.

It is completely insane to authorize contracts for such an important issue to corporations with such strong partisan ties and interests. In this case it happens to be republican which is even more suspicious because of what happened in 2000. Almost everyone who's vote was wrongly disqualified voted democratic and then that uhaul truck was found in the everglades with democratic absentee ballots. Especially after these events, for us to allow such a partisan corporation to manufacture voting machines is insane! The nature of this election has only made everything more suspicious, going in to and even for the first few hours of the election, every exit poll was showing Kerry had a comfortable lead in key states, but in the final hours, he lost Florida and then Ohio later? Come on guys.

Not whining here, just not sure what has changed us Americans to allow our democracy to be stolen from us,

Her name is Katherine Harris. She then became a Congresswoman! *gasp*. What's even more surprising is that she was re-elected this time around too.... My fellow Floridians are not Denying Ignorance...

Yes, I believe that's her! Gazrok, since you live in Florida, you probably signed that electionform 4 years ago as well. After those elections did you ever wonder if you marked the candidate of your choise?? It was shown and tested in this documentary and it appeared to be a strange and awkward form. Like it was intentionally made to trick people and to make them vote for Bush or another Republican partymember.

[edit on 3-11-2004 by Olafski]

Originally posted by ledbedder20
Almost everyone who's vote was wrongly disqualified voted democratic and then that uhaul truck was found in the everglades with democratic absentee ballots.

WTF??

Yes, I believe that's her! Gazrok, since you live in Florida, you probably signed that electionform 4 years ago as well. After those elections did you ever wonder if you marked the candidate of your choise?? It was shown and tested in this documentary and it appeared to be a strange and awkward form. Like it was intentionally made to trick people and to make them vote for Bush or another Republican partymember.

It was a little misleading, but I think most could figure it out easily enough...

I'm beginning to wonder about Diebold...not that I haven't always had questions....

I know of VERY few who voted for Bush, or even other local Republicans, yet it was practically a sweep? Even many of my Republican friends didn't toe the party line.... If Diebold is truly as corrupt as some think, then god help us, as it would mean the GOP, and the NWO/PNAC have ALREADY taken full control, and there isn't a damn thing we could do to stop them...

I just have a hard time believing there are THAT many religious freaks who didn't show up in the exit polls, pre-election polls, etc. Of course, crying foul at Diebold now would seem like sour grapes, but the concern for our future, and whether or not we truly have free elections, is certainly a bigger issue I'd think.

Originally posted by Gazrok
... crying foul at Diebold now would seem like sour grapes, but the concern for our future, and whether or not we truly have free elections, is certainly a bigger issue I'd think.

I could not agree more. A quote from the Mother Jones article Diebold's Political Machine ...

At a trade fair held recently here in Columbus, a wide range of companies seeking to fill that void demonstrated technologies that could easily and cheaply provide paper receipts for ballots. One such product, called TruVote, provides two separate voting receipts. The first is shown under plexiglass, and displays the choices made by a vote on the touch screen. This copy falls into a lockbox after the voter approves it. The second is provided to the voter. TruVote is already attracting fans, among them Brooks Thomas, Tennessee's Coordinator of Elections. "I've not seen anything that compares to [the] TruVote validation system." Georgia's Assistant Secretary of State, Terrell L. Slayton, Jr., calls the device the "perfect solution." But Blackwell argues the campaign for a paper ballot trail for Ohio is an attempt to "derail" reform. He says he'll comply with the demand only if Congress mandates it.

Now I ask you, if such solutions exist, why is it that GOVERNMENT contracts are granted to Diebold?

Oh another quote from Mother Jones...

Meanwhile, in Upper Arlington, a �lower profile' Wally O'Dell and his wife recently petitioned the city to get permission to serve liquor at future fundraisers and political gatherings.

Looks like "Wally" has something to celebrate with his political buddies.

I wonder if Kenny Boy and Halliburton are invited?

.

Some more tid-bits of observation...

Jeb Bush's Florida uses Diebold (30% of precincts)... Fox"News" was the first to call the state red.

Ohio uses Diebold (30%?)... NBC (defence contractors) were the first to call Ohio red when everybody else thought they were jumping the gun.

.

I'm watching a video on them right now...

A PC aka a central tabulator:

All votes go into this one machine.
One machine pulls all the votes together to pronounce the winner.

There is a legit way to do it,which is just you going into the central tabulator and downloading the numbers.

and then there is a tricky way to look at votes you go to local disk c go into "gems" then go to local dc, then central tabulatar votes, go to sum of the candidates, which is on A SPREADSHEET, so you can change numbers around.

And this my friend is how you can change the election numbers.

Human beings can't see what's going on inside the computers, how IDEAL.

WATCH THE VIDEO.

www.archive.org...

HOW CAN YOU RUN A DEMOCRACY OFF BLIND TRUST??

HOW IS IT OK TO NOT BE ABLE TO LOOK AT THE SOFTWARE AND JUST TRUST PEOPLE WHO WROTE THE SOFTWARE??

gooooodddddddddd!!!!!