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SW: Premier Election Systems
'''Diebold Election Systems''' (ref. parent [[Diebold Inc.]]) is a provider of "direct recording electronic (DRE) voting solutions" [http://diebold.com/dieboldes/], or [[voting machine]]s.
==New name, same owner==
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 [[Edelman]] "is handling the recasting of Diebold Election Systems to Premier Election Solutions," reported ''O'Dwyer's''. [http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0817edelman_diebold.html]
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." [http://www.crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/FREE/70816004/1088&Profile=1088]
==History==
[[Bob Urosevich]], the first CEO of Diebold Election Systems was also the founder of [[ES&S]], a competing voting machine company now owned by the [[McCarthy Group]]. 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.
Diebold's new touch screen [[voting machine]]s 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.
=="Delivering" Votesvotes==
[[Walden O'Dell]] 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 [[electoral vote]]s to the president next year." He was very active and visible as a Bush supporter:
:<u>Note</u>: According to the AP (August 29, 2003), the letter was actually dated [http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/business/6646063.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp 14 August 2003], more than two weeks prior to news stories about it. This is supported by an August 28, 2003 [http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm ''Cleveland Plain Dealer'' news story].
==Online Battlesbattles==
On October 10, 2003, electronic voting company Diebold, Inc., sent a cease-and-desist letter to the nonprofit [[Online Policy Group]] (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.
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[http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/daily/archive/fall_2003/20031023.html#n1]. Why War?, on the other hand, will continue to provide access to the memos by listing mirrors provided by individuals worldwide. [http://why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html]
==PR Campaignscampaigns==
"Diebold Election Systems (DES) has hired [[Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide|Ogilvy PR]] to burnish the company's image and the benefits of electronic voting in California," ''PR Week'' reported in August 2005. [http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240402&site=3] The state had decertified one of DES' e-voting machines the previous year [http://prwatch.org/prwissues/2004Q2/history.html], and the company wanted to ensure that [[E-voting PR|their "story is told"]] and that voters "understand the technology," said Ogilvy's [[Michael Law]], 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."
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 [[Public Strategies, Inc.]] and the [[Compliance Research Group]]. [http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0822ogilvy_diebold.htm] [http://prweek.com/news/news_story.cfm?ID=240402&site=3] See the SourceWatch articles on the firms, as well as [[A Short but Tragic History of E-voting Public Relations]] and [[e-voting PR]] for more information.
==SourceWatch Resourcesresources==
*[[E-Voting: Digital Democracy or a Cash Cow for Consultants?]]
*[[Selling electronic voting]]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold Wikipedia's Diebold article]
== External Links links ==
*[http://www.smashthetrifecta.com/diebold-memos-1.htm Insider Memos - The Smoking Guns of "Black Box Voting" Election Fraud Dangers]. Several years' worth of memos hosted on five non-U.S. servers. Most links are working (12/02/03).
*Dan Wilchins, [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,"] Reuters, November 6, 2006.
*M.R. Kropko, "[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070304/ap_on_hi_te/diebold_voting Diebold weighs strategy for voting unit]," Associated Press, March 4, 2007.
[[Category:Electronic voting]][[Category:Politics (U.S.)]][[Category:Elections (U.S.)]]
