Diebold

see ossoff ga kemp =<a href="https://www.alternet.org/activism/georgia-6th-house-district-special-election-case-gets-weirder-state-election-officials">https://www.alternet.org/activism/georgia-6th-house-district-special-election-case-gets-weirder-state-election-officials</a> fallout following a lawsuit filed in Georgia after its U.S. House Special Election last June get curiouser and curiouser, as we learned this week that the state attorney general's office has now quit its defense of the Secretary of State and the state's other top election official defendants in the case.We've been covering this mess for months now (years, really), but particularly since the <a href="https://bradblog.com/Docs/CURLINGvKEMP(2)-ComplaintWithVerificationAndExhibits_070317.pdf" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">lawsuit [PDF]</a> was filed in July, after the somewhat surprising results from June's U.S. House Special Election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, where GA's former Republican Sec. of State Karen Handel reportedly defeated Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff, but only on the state's 100% unverifiable Diebold touch-screen voting systems. (He defeated her nearly 2 to 1 on the <a href="https://bradblog.com/Docs/6th-district-runoff-statistical-analysis_VoterGA_101617.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">only verifiable ballots</a> in the race, the mail-in paper votes. Everything else regarding the results is unverifiable speculation.)Late last week, we learned via Frank Bajak at the Associated Press, that technicians at Kennesaw State University's Center for Elections, which has been contracted to program all of Georgia's computer voting and tabulation systems systems for some 15 years, "<a href="https://www.apnews.com/877ee1015f1c43f1965f63538b035d3f" style="text-decoration-line: none;">wiped clean</a>" the election server that was used to program the elections, ballots and tabulators, just days after the suit was filed in July. Its two backup servers were also subsequently wiped and "<a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/days-after-activists-sued-georgias-election-server-was-wiped-clean/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">degaussed three times</a>" in August, the day after the suit was moved from state to federal court.GA's chief election official, Republican Sec. of State Brian Kemp, who is running for governor in 2018, claims he knew nothing of the server deletions until AP's report last week. Previously, a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BrianKempGA/posts/10155116858826275" style="text-decoration-line: none;">huge fan</a> of the Center for Elections at Kennesaw, Kemp <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BrianKempGA/?hc_ref=ARRhEwBJfdY3pv9wfg3N_ezPNmAliOw_HpIFEHrp5H5eoSziE7YBmOW8brgDQ9DUCLI&fref=nf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">cited</a> the "gross incompetence" and "undeniable ineptitude" of the folks at KSU for whatever happened. Nobody has yet to take credit, however, for giving the instructions to delete the servers which held critical evidence that plaintiffs had hoped to have forensically investigated as part of the lawsuit. And then yesterday, in another flip-flop, Kemp called the entire matter "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BrianKempGA/posts/10155116858826275" style="text-decoration-line: none;">#fakenews</a>."All of that is disturbing on its own, but even more so in light of revelations earlier this year that the election server in question—which stored personal data for all of GA's 6.7 million voters and the electronic ballot programming and administrative passwords for the state's voting and tabulation systems—was left completely accessible online, no password necessary, for at least six months. Kennesaw was notified about the vulnerability by a data security researcher in August of 2016 (months before last year's Presidential election), but they failed to secure the server until after Politico's Kim Zetter <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/14/will-the-georgia-special-election-get-hacked-215255" style="text-decoration-line: none;">revealed</a> the vulnerability just prior to the GA-06 U.S. House race this year. (Samantha Bee's "Full Frontal" covered much of the story up to this point on her <a href="https://bradblog.com/?p=12357" style="text-decoration-line: none;">show last night</a>.)Then, on Wednesday evening, AP's Bajak offered <a href="https://apnews.com/0b9004bc3828468d9dc636054140a047" style="text-decoration-line: none;">another bombshell</a> in reporting that the Republican state attorney general's office, which had been defending Kemp, Kennesaw and the state Elections Board in the matter, has now pulled out from defending them. The reasons offered by the state AG and Kemp's campaign for Governor (he's running in 2018) have conflicted with each other or with known evidence obtained during the multi-partisan lawsuit, which a Kemp campaign spokesperson describes to AP yesterday as "a tasteless nothingburger cooked up by liberal activists who know their lawsuit is nothing short of stupid."One of those "liberal activist" plaintiffs, Republican Marilyn Mark, a longtime election integrity advocate and executive director of the <a href="https://coalitionforgoodgovernance.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Coalition for Good Governance</a>, confirms that nobody still knows who ordered the server deletion, nor why the state AG has dropped out of the case. "It's an enormous mystery, and the mysteries continue to increase every day," she says."I think that Brian Kemp is, and rightfully so, getting a black eye here," Marks tells me. "What he has done is shameful. There's no way to explain it. So I'm sure his defenders and campaign managers are doing everything they can to go on the offensive and try to make other people look like they are to blame, and that their candidate is innocent. But I think when people step back and say, wait a minute, if they erased the servers—and they did it twice—they did it for some reason. And it wasn't because our lawsuit was stupid."She goes on to explain the "number of conflicting stories that Brian Kemp's people are telling" about when and why the compromised servers were deleted and why the AG's office is no longer willing to defend the case. She also details whether any of the information plaintiffs had hoped to examine from the servers might still be available in what is believed to be a partial copy of the servers obtained by the FBI when they came in to examine the reported data breach that occurred earlier this year, when the servers were discovered to have been left vulnerable online.Georgia voters head to the polls for municipal elections being held next Tuesday, which will also be overseen by Kemp, programmed by Kennesaw, and run on the same wildly <a href="https://www.bradblog.com/?p=3467" style="text-decoration-line: none;">hackable</a>, 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting and tabulation systems that lead to this entire mess in the first place.She recently <a href="https://bradblog.com/Docs/OpenLettertoGeorgiaMunicipalCountyandStateElection_CoalitionForGoodGovernance_102917.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">wrote [PDF]</a> to Kemp and other election officials to ask them to make paper ballots available to voters since, as she tells me today, if the system was contaminated during the months it had been left vulnerable on the Internet, "They wouldn't have had time, even within the last year, to have cleaned up everything. Because, as you know, that malware can travel down to the memory cards, the voting machines, the optical scanners, and the jump servers down in the counties. Things could have traveled there in the last six months, year, two years—there's been no effort to try to disinfect all of the various components. I mean, there are 27,000 of these touch-screen voting machines in Georgia. There's no way that they should be in use when we know that this system was subject to a high degree of risk."

boss rove

govtech sec of state ohio fallover site; blackwell evangelical

diebold ez hack; gave 195K gop;  eo pledge to deliver votes; gop state sen asked to not use diebold but blackwell did anyway 88 (40 of 88 counties in 2004

==

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems</a>

Diebold Election Systems (ref. parent <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Diebold_Inc." title="Diebold Inc.">Diebold Inc.</a>) is a provider of "direct recording electronic (DRE) voting solutions" <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-0">[1]</a>, or <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Voting_machine" title="Voting machine" class="mw-redirect">voting machines</a>. In August 2007, the Diebold subsidiary's name was changed to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Premier_Election_Solutions" title="Premier Election Solutions" class="mw-redirect">Premier Election Solutions</a>. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-1">[2]</a>

<h2>Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#" class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>] </div>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#New_name.2C_same_owner">1 New name, same owner</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#History">2 History</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#.22Delivering.22_votes">3 "Delivering" votes</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#Allegations_of_illicit_interference_with_an_election">4 Allegations of illicit interference with an election</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#Online_battles">5 Online battles</a>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#Attempts_to_prohibit_publication_of_hackability_evidence">5.1 Attempts to prohibit publication of hackability evidence</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#PR_campaigns">6 PR campaigns</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#Articles_and_resources">7 Articles and resources</a>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#Related_SourceWatch_articles">7.1 Related SourceWatch articles</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#References">7.2 References</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#External_articles">7.3 External articles</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-13"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#External_resources">7.4 External resources</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2>New name, same owner</h2>

Following a year-long failed attempt to sell its e-voting subsidiary, the parent company renamed the subsidiary Premier Election Solutions. While still Diebold-owned, PES "will have its own management team and board of directors," and is based in Allen, Texas, while Diebold headquarters are in Ohio, reported O'Dwyer's PR Daily. The PR firm <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Edelman" title="Edelman" class="mw-redirect">Edelman</a> "is handling the recasting of Diebold Election Systems to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Premier_Election_Solutions" title="Premier Election Solutions" class="mw-redirect">Premier Election Solutions</a>," reported O'Dwyer's.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-2">[3]</a>

Diebold blamed the lack of buyers on "rapidly evolving political uncertainties and controversies surrounding ... electronic voting systems." Diebold also lowered its e-voting revenue expectations by $120 million, according to Crain's Cleveland Business. A Diebold spokesman "acknowledged that the highly charged attention paid to the subsidiary ... has been a distraction to Diebold," which hopes to "concentrate on its core ATM and security segments." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-3">[4]</a>

<h2>History</h2>

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bob_Urosevich&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Bob Urosevich (page does not exist)">Bob Urosevich</a>, the first CEO of Diebold Election Systems was also the founder of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ES%26S" title="ES&S" class="mw-redirect">ES&S</a>, a competing voting machine company now owned by the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/McCarthy_Group" title="McCarthy Group">McCarthy Group</a>. Together these two companies are responsible for tallying around 80% of votes cast in the United States. The current vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

It is reputed that the software architecture common to both is a creation of Mr Urosevich's company <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=I-Mark&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="I-Mark (page does not exist)">I-Mark</a> and is easily compromised, in part due to its reliance on Microsoft Access databases; and that the I-Mark and Microsoft software each represent a single point of failure of vote counting process, from which 80% of votes can be compromised via the exploit of a single line of code in either subsystem.

Diebold's new touch screen <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Voting_machine" title="Voting machine" class="mw-redirect">voting machines</a> have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

<h2>"Delivering" votes</h2>

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Walden_O%27Dell" title="Walden O'Dell">Walden O'Dell</a> or 'Wally" O'Dell, the current chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Electoral_vote&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Electoral vote (page does not exist)">electoral votes</a> to the president next year." He was very active and visible as a Bush supporter:

"Wally O'Dell, CEO of Diebold Inc., this week [27 August 2003] sent out letters to central Ohio Republicans asking them to raise $10,000 in donations in time for a Sept. 26 Ohio Republican Party event at his home. ... [Ohio State] House Minority Leader Chris Redfern ... and Senate Minority Leader Greg DiDonato ... petitioned Secretary of State <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ken_Blackwell&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Ken Blackwell (page does not exist)">Ken Blackwell</a> to drop O'Dell's company from the list of potential suppliers [of new electronic voting machines], saying his presence could undermine Ohio's entire election system." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-4">[5]</a>

<dl>

<dd>Note: According to the AP (August 29, 2003), the letter was actually dated <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-5">[6]</a>, more than two weeks prior to news stories about it. This is supported by an August 28, 2003 <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-6">[7]</a> news story.</dd>

</dl>

<h2>Allegations of illicit interference with an election</h2>

On October 13, 2003, it is reported that a former worker in Diebold's Georgia warehouse says the company installed patches on its machines before the state's 2002 gubernatorial election that were never certified by independent testing authorities or cleared with Georgia election officials. If the charges are true, Diebold could be in violation of federal and state election-certification rules.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-7">[8]</a>

<h2>Online battles</h2>

<h3>Attempts to prohibit publication of hackability evidence</h3>

On October 10, 2003, Diebold sent a cease-and-desist letter to the nonprofit <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Online_Policy_Group&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Online Policy Group (page does not exist)">Online Policy Group</a> (OPG) ISP demanding that OPG remove a page of links published on an Independent Media Center (IndyMedia) website located on a computer server hosted by OPG.

Diebold sent out dozens of similar notices to ISPs hosting IndyMedia and other websites linking to or publishing copies of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_internal_memo&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Diebold internal memo (page does not exist)">Diebold internal memos</a>. OPG was the only ISP to resist the takedown demand from Diebold. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-8">[9]</a>

On October 16, 2003, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation" title="Electronic Frontier Foundation">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> announced that it would defend the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and news website publisher against claims of indirect copyright infringement from the electronic voting machines' manufacturer. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-9">[10]</a>

On October 21, 2003, defending the right of a fair, democratic election, Why War? <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-10">[11]</a> and the Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons (SCDC) <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-11">[12]</a> announced that they would reject Diebold's cease and desist orders and initiated a legal electronic civil disobedience campaign to ensure permanent public access to the controversial leaked memos. Thus, through active, legal electronic civil disobedience, Why War? and SCDC will bring to light the usually silent acts of suppression and censorship. The result will be a permanent and public mirror<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-12">[13]</a> of the memos: documents whose public existence challenges the assumed presence of democracy in America. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-13">[14]</a>

On October 22, 2003, the two groups have decided to pursue different courses of action, confident that the actions of both groups will independently result in continued access to Diebold's memos. SCDC has decided to comply with any cease and desist requests and subsequently take legal action against Diebold.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-14">[15]</a> Why War?, on the other hand, will continue to provide access to the memos by listing mirrors provided by individuals worldwide.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-15">[16]</a>

Spin on Wikipedia On November 25, 2005, an anonymous poster from a Diebold IP address deleted extensive references to the controversy surrounding Diebold's electronic voting machines. This edit was picked up by the Wikiscanner tool. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-16">[17]</a>

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold">Wikipedia's Diebold article</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>PR campaigns</h2>

"Diebold Election Systems (DES) has hired <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ogilvy_Public_Relations_Worldwide" title="Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide">Ogilvy PR</a> to burnish the company's image and the benefits of electronic voting in California," PR Week reported in August 2005.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-17">[18]</a> The state had decertified one of DES' e-voting machines the previous year <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-18">[19]</a>, and the company wanted to ensure that <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/E-voting_PR" title="E-voting PR">their "story is told"</a> and that voters "understand the technology," said Ogilvy's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michael_Law&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Michael Law (page does not exist)">Michael Law</a>, who heads DES' California work. According to PR Week, Ogilvy was researching public perceptions of DES, with an eye to developing messages "about the ease of electronic voting, particularly for voters who do not speak English, as well as for handicapped voters."

The same month, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reported that DES' California PR is part of a national campaign headed by former <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Democratic_National_Committee" title="Democratic National Committee">Democratic National Committee</a> chair <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Joseph_J._Andrew" title="Joseph J. Andrew">Joseph J. Andrew</a>. Andrew has been praised for his "grassroots organizing" and "golden rolodex" of CEOs and labor leaders, according to O'Dwyer's. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-19">[20]</a>

DES has worked with numerous other PR firms and consultants to burnish its public image nationally and in various regions of the country. These include <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Public_Strategies,_Inc." title="Public Strategies, Inc.">Public Strategies, Inc.</a> and the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Compliance_Research_Group&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Compliance Research Group (page does not exist)">Compliance Research Group</a>. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-20">[21]</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_note-21">[22]</a> See the SourceWatch articles on the firms, as well as <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/A_Short_but_Tragic_History_of_E-voting_Public_Relations" title="A Short but Tragic History of E-voting Public Relations">A Short but Tragic History of E-voting Public Relations</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/E-voting_PR" title="E-voting PR">e-voting PR</a> for more information.

<h2>Articles and resources</h2>

<h3>Related SourceWatch articles</h3>

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Electronic_voting">Electronic voting Index of articles</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/E-Voting:_Digital_Democracy_or_a_Cash_Cow_for_Consultants%3F" title="E-Voting: Digital Democracy or a Cash Cow for Consultants?">E-Voting: Digital Democracy or a Cash Cow for Consultants?</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Selling_electronic_voting" title="Selling electronic voting">Selling electronic voting</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/A_Short_but_Tragic_History_of_E-voting_Public_Relations" title="A Short but Tragic History of E-voting Public Relations">A Short but Tragic History of E-voting Public Relations</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/E-voting" title="E-voting" class="mw-redirect">e-voting</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/E-voting_PR" title="E-voting PR">e-voting PR</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Voting_machine" title="Voting machine" class="mw-redirect">Voting machine</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bush%27s_Rangers" title="Bush's Rangers">Bush's Rangers</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/David_Bear" title="David Bear">David Bear</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Public_Strategies,_Inc." title="Public Strategies, Inc.">Public Strategies, Inc.</a></li>

</ul>

<h3>References</h3>

<li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-0">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://diebold.com/dieboldes/">http://diebold.com/dieboldes/</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-1">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/FREE/70816004/1088&Profile=1088">http://www.crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/FREE/70816004/1088&Profile=1088</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-2">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0817edelman_diebold.html">http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0817edelman_diebold.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-3">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/FREE/70816004/1088&Profile=1088">http://www.crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/FREE/70816004/1088&Profile=1088</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-4">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/news/stories/20030827/localnews/140871.html">http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/news/stories/20030827/localnews/140871.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-5">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/business/6646063.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp">http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/business/6646063.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp</a> 14 August 2003</li>

<li id="cite_note-6"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-6">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm">http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm</a> Cleveland Plain Dealer</li>

<li id="cite_note-7"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-7">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60563,00.html">http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60563,00.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-8"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-8">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/20031016_eff_pr.php">http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/20031016_eff_pr.php</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-10"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-10">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html">http://why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-11"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-11">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://scdc.sccs.swarthmore.edu/">http://scdc.sccs.swarthmore.edu/</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-12"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-12">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://cultcom.com/mirror.html">http://cultcom.com/mirror.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-13"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-13">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://why-war.com/features/diebold_pr.txt">http://why-war.com/features/diebold_pr.txt</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-14"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-14">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/daily/archive/fall_2003/20031023.html#n1">http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/daily/archive/fall_2003/20031023.html#n1</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-15"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-15">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html">http://why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-16"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-16">↑</a> Wikipedia <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=28623410">history log</a> for [[w:Diebold|]].</li>

<li id="cite_note-17"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-17">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240402&site=3">http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240402&site=3</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-18"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-18">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://prwatch.org/prwissues/2004Q2/history.html">http://prwatch.org/prwissues/2004Q2/history.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-19"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-19">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0822ogilvy_diebold.htm">http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0822ogilvy_diebold.htm</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-20"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-20">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0822ogilvy_diebold.htm">http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0822ogilvy_diebold.htm</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-21"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Diebold_Election_Systems#cite_ref-21">↑</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240402&site=3">http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240402&site=3</a></li>

</ol>

<h3>External articles</h3>

<ul>

<li>C.D. Sludge, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00064.htm">Sludge Report #154 - Bigger Than Watergate!</a>, scoop.co.nz, July 8, 2003. Another copy re Bev Harris's investigative report at <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/voting.shtml">TruthOut.org</a>.</li>

<li>Julie Carr Smyth, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm">Voting Machine Controversy</a>, Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 28, 2003: "The head (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Walden_O%27Dell" title="Walden O'Dell">Walden O'Dell</a>) of a company (<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Diebold_Inc." title="Diebold Inc.">Diebold Inc.</a>) vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is 'committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.'"</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/business/6646063.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp">Diebold appears to have conflict. CEO lobbies for Bush while seeking contract to sell voting machines</a>, AP, August 29, 2003.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://foi.missouri.edu/evolvingissues/optakingsides.html">Opinion: Taking sides at Diebold</a>, Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 1, 2003.</li>

<li>Lynn Landes, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingForumSpeech.htm">How We Lost The Vote - How To Get It Back</a>, ecotalk.org, September 7, 2003.</li>

<li>Julie Carr Smith, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.diebold.com/whatsnews/inthenews/executive.htm">Diebold Executive to Keep Lower Profile</a>, Cleveland Plain Dealer from diebold.com, September 16, 2003.</li>

<li>Chuck Richardson, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://niagarabuzz.com/article_149.shtml">The not so good part of the Cali recall delay</a>, niagarabuzz.com, September 16, 2003: "The coup de grace, however, is Walden O'Dell, Diebold's chief executive officer, who's classified as one of Bush's "Pioneers and Rangers," a tag reserved for campaign contributors who give more than $100,000 to the Bush campaign."</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/blog/page.cfm?pageid=171">Diebold Redux</a>, whitehouseforsale.org, September 17, 2003.</li>

<li>Andrew Donoghue, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,39020357,39117755,00.htm">Michael Moore attacks e-voting</a>, zdnet.co.uk, November 10, 2003.</li>

<li>Michael Hardy, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/1110/web-evote-11-10-03.asp">Bias in the voting box?</a>, fcw.com, November 10, 2003.</li>

<li>Faun Otter, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0211/S00081.htm">Diebold - the face of modern ballot tampering</a>, scoop.co.nz, November 14, 2003.</li>

<li>Paul Festa, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5112430.html">Diebold retreats; lawmaker demands inquiry</a>, cnetnews.com, December 1, 2003.</li>

<li>Paul Krugman, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/02/opinion/02KRUG.html?th">Hack the Vote</a>, New York Times Op-Ed, December 2, 2003.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.punkvoter.com/home/home.php">Diebold (e-voting company) must now deal with the students they tried to silence and a Congressional investigation</a>, punkvoter.com, December 7, 2003.</li>

<li>Julie Carr Smyth, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm">Voting Machine Controversy</a>", Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 28, 2003.</li>

<li>Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html">Diebold's Political Machine</a>", Mother Jones, March 5, 2004.</li>

<li>"<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0822ogilvy_diebold.htm">Diebold Hires Ogilvy</a>," O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub. req'd.), August 22, 2005.</li>

<li>Andrew Gordon, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240402&site=3&setcookie=1">Ogilvy to help Diebold with CA outreach</a>," PR Week (sub. req'd.), August 25, 2005.</li>

<li>Greg Levine, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.forbes.com/2005/09/21/diebold-ceo-coo-cx_gl_autofacescan10_print.html">"Diebold's O'Dell Adds COO Role Amid Glum Results,"</a> Forbes, September 21, 2005.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=53885">"VelvetRevolution: Is Diebold the Next Enron? Corruption, Incompetence and Infighting Pummell the Company Name and Stock"</a>, US Newswire, September 22, 2005.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001852.htm">"DIEB-THROAT Weighs in on Diebold's Stunning 15.5% Wednesday Stock Plunge,"</a> Brad Blog, September 22, 2005.</li>

<li>Brad Friedman, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/09/13/diebold/">"Hack the vote? No problem. Diebold, the e-voting-machine maker, has long sworn its systems are secure. Not so, says a new Princeton study. Converting votes from one candidate to another is simple,"</a> Salon, September 13, 2006. Free preview or subscription required.</li>

<li>Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11717105/robert_f_kennedy_jr__wil">"Will The Next Election Be Hacked?"</a>, Rolling Stone, September 21, 2006.</li>

<li>Melissa Harris, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.voting20oct20,0,5237249.story?coll=bal-home-headlines">"Former delegate gets purported Diebold code. FBI is contacted over anonymous package,"</a> Baltimore Sun, October 20, 2006.</li>

<li>Michael Janofsky, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/290653_diebold01.html">"Diebold demands that HBO cancel documentary on voting machines. Film saying they can be manipulated 'inaccurate',"</a> Bloomberg News (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), November 1, 2006.</li>

<li>Dan Wilchins, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-11-06T205209Z_01_N06268397_RTRIDST_0_FINANCIAL-DIEBOLD-VOTINGMACHINES.XML">"Diebold voting machine business should go-analysts,"</a> Reuters, November 6, 2006.</li>

<li>M.R. Kropko, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070304/ap_on_hi_te/diebold_voting">Diebold weighs strategy for voting unit</a>," Associated Press, March 4, 2007.</li>

<li>David Bennett, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/FREE/70816004/1088&Profile=1088">Diebold to realign Election Systems unit</a>," Crain's Cleveland Business, August 16, 2007.</li>

<li>"<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0817edelman_diebold.html">Edelman Gets Diebold's Vote</a>," O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), August 17, 2007.</li>

<li>M.C. Moewe, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD05POL110307.htm">"Survey contradicts vote machine firm's failure rate claim,"</a> Daytona News Journal (Fla.), November 8, 2007.</li>

</ul>

<h3>External resources</h3>

Bev Harris

<ul>

<li>Free Online Version: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.blackboxvoting.org/">Black Box Voting</a>.</li>

<li>Bev Harris, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0301/S00166.htm">"Senate Ethics Director resigns</a>; Senator <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Chuck_Hagel" title="Chuck Hagel">Chuck Hagel</a> admits owning <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Voting_machine" title="Voting machine" class="mw-redirect">voting machine</a> company <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/McCarthy_Group" title="McCarthy Group">McCarthy Group</a>", scoop.co.nz, January 31, 2003.</li>

<li>Bev Harris, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm">Inside A U.S. Election Vote Counting Program</a>, Scoop.co.nz, July 8, 2003. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm#intro">Introduction</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm#intro">Part 1: Can the votes be changed?</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm#password">Part 2: Can the password be by-passed?</a>; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm#audit">Part 3: Can the audit log be altered?</a>.</li>

<li>Bev Harris, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00078.htm">Bald-Faced Lies About Black Box Voting Machines and The Truth About the Rob-Georgia File</a>, July 10, 2003.</li>

</ul>

Debate

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.votingmachinesprocon.org/subpartisan.htm">Is Diebold evil?</a></li>

</ul>

Films

<ul>

<li>Hacking Democracy (HBO, 2006)</li>

</ul>

Other Websites

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.smashthetrifecta.com/diebold-memos-1.htm">Insider Memos - The Smoking Guns of "Black Box Voting" Election Fraud Dangers</a>. Several years' worth of memos hosted on five non-U.S. servers. Most links are working (12/02/03).</li>

<li>David L. Dill's <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.verifiedvoting.org/">verifiedvoting.org web site</a>:</li>

</ul>

<dl>

<dd>

<ul>

<li>"In response to the 2000 Florida debacle, Congress passed a law, the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Help_America_Vote_Act" title="Help America Vote Act">Help America Vote Act</a> (HAVA), which mandates voting process reform in all the states."</li>

<li>"Mr. Darryl R. Wold, former chairman of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Federal_Election_Commission" title="Federal Election Commission">Federal Election Commission</a> (FEC) believes that HAVA requires a voter-verifiable paper trail."</li>

</ul>

</dd>

</dl>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Jon_S._Corzine" title="Jon S. Corzine">Jon S. Corzine</a>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.dscc.org/information/stopvotingmachines_letter/">Outrageous: CEO lobbies for Bush while seeking contract to sell voting machines</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Democratic_Senatorial_Campaign_Committee" title="Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee">Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee</a>, no date. Includes online petition to Diebold: "Republicans must stop trying to steal elections. Sign our petition and send them a message today."</li>

</ul>

</div>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>:

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Election_Protection_Wiki" title="Category:Election Protection Wiki">Election Protection Wiki</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Election_Protection_Wiki_issue_articles" title="Category:Election Protection Wiki issue articles">Election Protection Wiki issue articles</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Electronic_voting" title="Category:Electronic voting">Electronic voting</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Politics_%28U.S.%29" title="Category:Politics (U.S.)">Politics (U.S.)</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Elections_%28U.S.%29" title="Category:Elections (U.S.)">Elections (U.S.)</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Corruption" title="Category:Corruption">Corruption</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

===

<table class="sortable" id="sort_grunk" border="1"><tbody><tr class=" odd"><td><a href="http://www.nndb.com/people/348/000109021/">Wally O'Dell</a></td><td>

<center>Business</center>

</td><td align="right"><tt>c. 1945</tt></td><td align="right"> </td><td>CEO of Diebold, 1999-2005</td></tr></tbody></table>

visisted w ranch

Wally O'Dell

AKA Walden W. O'Dell

Born: c. <a href="http://www.nndb.com/lists/944/000105629/" class="proflink">1945</a>

Birthplace: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/geo/731/000069524/" class="proflink">St. Louis, MO</a>

Gender: Male

Race or Ethnicity: White

Sexual orientation: Straight

Occupation: Business

Party Affiliation: Republican

Nationality: United States

Executive summary: CEO of Diebold, 1999-2005

In August 2003, corporate CEO Walden O'Dell mailed out 100 invitations for a political fundraiser at his 10,800-square-foot home outside Columbus, Ohio. The $1,000-a-plate dinner was to benefit the Ohio state Republican party's 2004 campaign fund. A diehard Republican and <a href="http://www.nndb.com/people/360/000022294/">Bush</a> Pioneer, O'Dell stated in the letter that "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year."

The problem? O'Dell was President, Chairman, and CEO of Diebold -- an electronic voting machine manufacturer. They make the actual touchscreen systems that record votes on election day. When asked about the partisan fundraiser, a company spokesperson averred: "It's not part of Diebold. It's what Wally does in his own home."

O'Dell eventually resigned as CEO in December 2005.

November 2002 interview with CNBC:

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10"><tbody><tr><td align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top"><tt>BILL GRIFFETH</tt>:</td><td>How tamperproof are these voting machines? That seems to be a concern of some who feel that it only takes one person, one hacker who can screw up an entire election. How valid is that criticism, Mr. O'Dell?</td></tr><tr><td align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top"><tt>O'DELL</tt>:</td><td>Well, there's always risks, but, you know, these things are not connected to the Internet. They're individual -- precinct by precinct, location by location. They're doublechecked before they're sent out. We think the technology is fabulous and very bulletproof.</td></tr></tbody></table>

</blockquote>

Father: Lou Ruvo

Wife: Patricia (four children)

Son: Michael

Son: Patrick

Daughter: Jennifer

University: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/552/000068348/">BS Electrical Engineering, Ohio State University</a>

University: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/748/000068544/">MS Electrical Engineering, St. Louis University</a>

University: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/468/000068264/">MBA, Stanford University</a>

Administrator: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/552/000068348/">Trustee, Ohio State University (2003-)</a>

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/company/568/000086310/">Diebold</a> President and CEO (1999-2005)

Member of the Board of <a href="http://www.nndb.com/company/568/000086310/">Diebold</a> (as Chairman, -2005)

Member of the Board of <a href="http://www.nndb.com/company/530/000124158/">Lennox International</a> (2003-06)

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/407/000126029/">Boys & Girls Clubs of America</a> National Trustee

Columbus Association of Performing Arts Board of Directors

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/175/000167671/">Bush-Cheney '04</a>

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/950/000168446/">Ohio Business Roundtable</a>

Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges Trustee

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/447/000050297/">United Way</a> Greater Stark County Board

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/group/716/000117365/">Bush Pioneer 2000</a>

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/group/944/000093665/">Dubya Ranch Hand</a> Aug-2003

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/group/715/000117364/">Bush Pioneer 2004</a>

===

<div align="left">Published on Thursday, March 10, 2005 by CommonDreams.org</div>

</td></tr><tr align="left"><td>

<div align="left">Teresa Heinz Kerry - Hacking the "Mother Machine"?</div>

</td></tr><tr align="left"><td>

<div align="left">by Thom Hartmann</div>

</td></tr><tr><td height="10"> </td></tr><tr align="left" valign="top"><td>

"Two brothers own 80 percent of the [voting] machines used in the United States," Teresa Heinz Kerry told a group of Seattle guests at a March 7, 2005 lunch for Representative Adam Smith, according to reporter Joel Connelly in an article in the <a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/Connelly/214744_joel07.html" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">Seattle Post-Intelligencer</a>. Connelly noted Heinz Kerry added that it is "very easy to hack into the mother machines."

The two brothers Mrs. Kerry is referencing are, according to voting machine expert (and founder of<a href="http://www.banvotingmachines.org/" target="new" style=" text-decoration: none;">www.BanVotingMachines.org)</a> Lynn Landes, in an article for the <a href="http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html" target="new" style=" text-decoration: none;">Online Journal</a>, Bob Urosevich, <a href="http://www.diebold.com/news/newsdisp.asp?id=3054" target="new" style=" text-decoration: none;">president</a> of Diebold Election Systems, and <a href="http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:nikG-CwF8sJ:www.essvote.com/index.php%3Fsection%3Dexec%26rightnav%3Dabout%26f_exec_id%3D3+site:www.essvote.com+urosevich&hl=en&lr=lang_en" target="new" style=" text-decoration: none;">Todd Urosevich</a>, who was vice president for customer support of <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-01.htm" target="new" style=" text-decoration: none;">Chuck Hagel's old company</a>, now known as ES&S.

Presumably the "mother machines" Teresa was talking about are the "central tabulator" computers, like the Windows-based Diebold central tabulator PC that Howard Dean hacked into and untraceably changed an election on - in 90 seconds - live on the <a href="http://www.crocuta.net/Dean/Dean_Host_TopicA_Aug8_2004.htm" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">"Topic A With Tina Brown"</a> CNBC TV show late last year.

As Dean noted while hacking the Diebold machine on national television, "In 1998, only 7% of all U.S. counties used electronic voting machines." But, Dean noted of the 2004 race, "in the next presidential election, roughly 1 in 3 of us will use one."

Dean added:

<blockquote>"But critics have found all sorts of flaws with these machines, from software security concerns, to the complete lack of a paper trail to verify votes. These machines cannot be recounted.

"In Riverside County, California, an incumbent mysteriously pulled ahead after the voting machine company employees stopped the tally to tinker with the machines.

"In Iowa [graphic shows 'Allamakee County, Iowa'], machines in one precinct returned 4 million votes-- when only 300 actual voters turned out.

"In San Diego, election officials reportedly turned to teenagers to reboot their malfunctioning machines.

"And in Florida, a computer crash erased the records from Miami-Dade's first widespread use of touchscreen voting machines-- all data from the 2002 gubernatorial primary is gone.

"There are two problems. One, there's no paper trail which means you can't verify your vote, and it can't be recounted. The other potentially serious problem: tampering and rigging of elections. We asked Diebold, one of the companies that makes these machines, and Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood to appear on this program. They both turned us down."

</blockquote>

Democratic concern about electronic voting machines has floated around for several years, particularly since voting rights activist Bev Harris (of <a href="http://www.blackboxvoting.org/" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">www.blackboxvoting.org</a>) reported that she was Googling around the internet and stumbled across anFTP backdoor on Diebold's website that, just after the 2002 election, contained a folder titled "Rob Georgia." (Cleland's 2002 loss in Georgia helped hand control of the Senate back to the Republicans, who had lost it when Jim Jeffords of Vermont left the party to become an independent.)

In Georgia and Florida, where paper had been totally replaced by touch-screen machines in many to most precincts during 2001 and 2002, the 2002 election produced some of the nation's most startling precursors to the alarming shift from an "exit poll win" for Kerry to the "voting-machine win" for Bush in 2004.

<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/2002-11-03-state-polls-usat_x.htm" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">USA Today</a> reported on Nov. 3, 2002, "In Georgia, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll shows Democratic Sen. Max Cleland with a 49%-to-44% lead over Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss." Cox News Service, based in Atlanta, reported just after the election (Nov. 7) that, "Pollsters may have goofed" because "Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss defeated incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland by a margin of 53 to 46 percent. The Hotline, a political news service, recalled a series of polls Wednesday showing that Chambliss had been ahead in none of them."

Just as amazing was the 2002 Georgia governor's race. "Similarly," the <a href="http://www.zogby.com/soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=4864" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">Zogby polling organization</a> reported on Nov. 7, "no polls predicted the upset victory in Georgia of Republican Sonny Perdue over incumbent Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes. Perdue won by a margin of 52 to 45 percent. The most recent Mason Dixon Poll had shown Barnes ahead 48 to 39 percent last month with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 points."

Almost all of the votes in Georgia were recorded on the new touch-screen computerized voting machines, which produced no paper trail whatsoever. Similarly, as the San Jose Mercury News reported in a Jan. 23, 2003 editorial titled<a href="http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/5011944.htm" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">"Gee Whiz, Voter Fraud?"</a> "In one Florida precinct last November, votes that were intended for the Democratic candidate for governor ended up for Gov. Jeb Bush, because of a misaligned touchscreen. How many votes were miscast before the mistake was found will never be known, because there was no paper audit." ("Misaligned" touchscreens also caused 18 known machines in Dallas to register Republican votes when Democratic screen-buttons were pushed in 2002: it's unknown how many others weren't noticed.)

Maybe it's true that the citizens of Georgia simply decided that incumbent Democratic Senator Max Cleland, a wildly popular war veteran, was, as Republican TV ads suggested, too unpatriotic to remain in the Senate, even though his Republican challenger, Saxby Chambliss, had sat out the Vietnam war with a medical deferment.

Maybe, in the final two days of the race, those voters who'd pledged themselves to Georgia's popular incumbent Governor Roy Barnes suddenly and inexplicably decided to switch to Republican challenger Sonny Perdue.

Maybe George W. and Jeb Bush, Alabama's new Republican governor Bob Riley, and a small but congressionally decisive handful of other long-shot Republican candidates around the country really did win those states where conventional wisdom and straw polls showed them losing in the last few election cycles, but computer controlled voting or ballot-reading machines showed them winning.

Perhaps, after a half-century of fine-tuning exit polling to such a science that it's now used to verify if elections are clean in Third World countries, it really did suddenly become inaccurate in the United States in the past few years and just won't work here anymore. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that the sudden rise of inaccurate exit polls happened around the same time corporate-programmed, computer-controlled, modem-capable voting machines began recording and tabulating ballots.

As the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22188-2005Jan19.html?nav=rss_politics/elections/2004" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">Washington Post</a> noted in a January 20, 2005 article by Richard Morin and Claudia Deane ("Report Acknowledges Inaccuracies in 2004 Exit Polls"):

<blockquote>"But 'there were 26 states in which the estimates produced by the exit poll data overstated the vote for John Kerry....' said Joe Lenski of Edison Media Research and Warren Mitofsky of Mitofsky International.

"Throughout election night, the national exit poll showed the Massachusetts senator leading President Bush by 51 percent to 48 percent. But when all the votes were counted, it was Bush who won by slightly less than three percentage points."

</blockquote>

Mitofsky and Edison's work also showed that Ohio was one of the states where the discrepancies between the official tabulation and the exit polls were most noticeable. The Washington Post noted: "At the request of the media sponsors, Mitofsky and Lenski are continuing to examine exit polling in Ohio and Pennsylvania, two critical battleground states where the poll results were off."

When four attorneys in Ohio sued that state to discover details of how voting was conducted in that state, they report they wereslapped with a massive and expensive lawsuit engineered by the State of Ohio's Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell (also co-chair of the Ohio Bush For President campaign) and Ohio Attorney General, Republican Jim Petro. The Ohio lawyer/activists have launched a legal defense fund (information available at<a href="http://freepress.org/store.php#donate" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">http://freepress.org/store.php#donate</a>) to help them fight both for an expos� of Ohio irregularities and to defend themselves against this attack by the Republican officials who control the voting systems in that state.

Oddly, though, as statistics experts Steven Freeman and Josh Mittledorf noted in an article for <a href="http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1970/P240/" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">In These Times</a>, analyzing the data provided by exit polling companies Mitofsky and Edison, "only in precincts that used old-fashioned, hand-counted paper ballots did the official count and the exit polls fall within the normal sampling margin of error." In those places where computers were used to count the vote, oddly the exit polls showed Kerry winning but the voting machines had Bush winning.

Mitofsky/Edison tried to explain this away with their "shy Republican" theory, suggesting that they'd hired young pollsters and older Republican voters were less willing to talk with them. Noted Freeman and Mittledorf:

<blockquote>"But in fact, the data suggest that Bush voters were slightly more likely to complete the survey: 56 percent of voters completed the survey in the Bush strongholds, while 53 percent cooperated in Kerry strongholds."</blockquote>

Thus, say these two university experts: "The exit polls themselves are a strong indicator of a corrupted election."

This analysis comes just as Bev Harris' organization <a href="http://www.blackboxvoting.org/" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">www.blackboxvoting.org</a> provided testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, as reported on their website:

<blockquote>"In mid-February, Black Box Voting, together with computer experts and videographers, under the supervision of appropriate officials, proved that a real Diebold system can be hacked.

"This was not theoretical or a 'potential' vulnerability. Votes were hacked on a real system in a real location using the actual setup used on Election Day, Nov. 2, 2004.

"In October, Black Box Voting published an article on this Web site about remote access into the Diebold system. After examining the Diebold software and related internal e-mails, local security professionals were able to demonstrate a hack into a simulated system.

"In February, we were allowed to try various hacking techniques into a real election system. To our surprise, the method used in our October simulation did not work.

"However, another method did work. The hack that did work was unsophisticated enough that many high school students would be able to achieve it. This hack altered the election by 100,000 votes, leaving no trace at all in the central tabulator program. It did not appear in any audit log. The hack could have been executed in the November 2004 election by just one person.

"This hack stunned the officials who were observing the test. It calls into question the results of as many as 40 million votes in 30 states. We are awaiting the response of the House Judiciary Committee to this new development for their investigation.

"In another real-world example, Black Box Voting obtained the actual files used in the Nov. 2 election in a specific county. In this situation, the local officials did not know how to run their Diebold system, so a Diebold tech ran the election in that county. Election officials remembered the Diebold tech's first name, but not his last name.

"The Diebold tech had gone home after the election, and no one in the county was able to access their own voting system, leading to some consternation because they could not provide our public records request.

"Because local officials could not access their logs, we were given permission to sit down and copy files. (We have since found that this is not an isolated problem -- many local officials are painfully unfamiliar with their own voting systems.)

"Local officials did not know their password, so Bev Harris asked if they would like her to hack the password. They said 'yes' (!)

"Later, to our even greater surprise, Bev Harris found that the password set by the Diebold tech on this real election file, used in the Nov. 2004 election was ... drum roll please ... the diabolically clever password: 'diebold.' (This took only two tries to guess.)"

</blockquote>

So what to do? Here's a five-step process that Americans interested in clean elections - regardless of party affiliation - could start immediately, so it'll in place in time for the 2006 elections.

<ul>

<li>1. Organize and fund a national exit poll, using a non-partisan, professional organization like Zogby, or one built from the ground up.

</li>

<li>2. Have detailed systems in place - using the internet and email, in particular - to release the results of those exit polls within an hour of the close of the polls on election eve in November, 2006.

</li>

<li>3. Plan for vote fraud, and brand the plan. In the Ukraine, the slogan was "Time's up!" The logo was a ticking clock, and thousands of paper stencils were distributed so the logo could be spray-painted on sidewalks or buildings in the event evidence of vote-fraud showed up. The color was orange, and orange scarves and hats were mass purchased before election day.

</li>

<li>4. Develop a corps of people committed to showing up and speaking out wherever the exit polls demonstrate the clear possibility of election fraud.

</li>

<li>5. Have a relentless media strategy in place to keep the pressure on and bring people out into the streets.</li>

</ul>

If you think this isn't viable, it is. It's already been done, in Ukraine, Belarus, the former Soviet state of Georgia, and Serbia. In three of those four elections, this very strategy succeeded in getting "official" vote tabulations changed and elections reversed. And, irony of ironies, it was largely <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1129-26.htm" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">funded by the United States</a>.

One would think that the United States Congress would be working for greater transparency in our elections. And, indeed, Congressman Rush Holt and Senator Hillary Clinton have introduced bills into the House and Senate that would call for that. But, inexplicably, Republicans in the House and Senate have blocked them from coming to a vote.

At the same time, computer programmer Clinton Curtis charged, in a sworn affidavit before a <a href="http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/voteforumtrans121304.pdf" target="_new" style=" text-decoration: none;">U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee</a> investigation in Ohio, that Republican Congressman Tom Feeney of Florida participated in hiring Curtis to write "undetectable" (when compiled) voting-machine-rigging software. Republicans in the House have also blocked efforts to investigate this and other charges made during hearing held in Ohio by Congressman John Conyers.....

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Diebold

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