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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.[http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60563,00.html]
On October 16, 2003, the [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] announced that it will defend the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and news website publisher against claims of [[indirect copyright infringement ]] from the electronic voting machines' manufacturer. [ibid]
subsections, linking Diebold Election Systems electoral fraud, 2004
'''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.
It is the focus of mild controversy surrounding the [[U.S. presidential election, 2000]] and [[U.S. midterm election, 2002]], and of a growing controversy surrounding its role in the [[U.S. presidential election, 2004]]. ''See [[Cuyahoga County, OH, US]] and [[Franklin County, OH, US]] and summaries of [[OH, US]] and [[FL, US]] for ongoing details and updates of the most controversial and central questions that might actually affect results.''
== origins ==
[[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.
It is reputed that the software architecture common to both is a creation of Mr Urosevich's company [[I-Mark]] 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. This makes the temptation for [[electoral fraud]] profound and probably irresistible:
== issues ==
=== no paper trail ===
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. This means that any such fraud would be impossible to catch.
This is not a technical issue, it is a deliberate design decision to make a [[recount]] impossible. There exist methods to generate at least post-facto vote-by-vote paper trails though this may compromise [[ballot privacy]] in a recount situation. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail. -[http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950
]
For evidence of opportunity and evidence of method that the Diebold systems have been exploited to rig American elections in the recent past, see an expose of these systems (<u>free online version</u>) at [http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ Black Box Voting] by [[Bev Harris]]. Also see [http://www.prisonplanet.com/transcript_harris_091903.html transcript] of September 19, 2003, interview by Alex Jones with Bev Harris.
=== partisan executives ===
Diebold's officials are also quite notable [[Republican Party]] figures:
[[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 [[OH, US|Ohio ]] deliver its [[electoral vote]]s 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. ... [State of Ohio]House Minority Leader Chris Redfern, D-Catawba Island, and Senate Minority Leader Greg DiDonato, D-New Philadelphia, on Tuesday petitioned Secretary of State [[Ken Blackwell]] 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." [http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/news/stories/20030827/localnews/140871.html]
:<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].
=== [[libel chill]] ===
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.
Diebold sent out dozens of similar notices to ISPs hosting [[IndyMedia]] and other websites linking to or publishing copies of [[Diebold internal memo]]s. OPG is the only ISP so far to resist the takedown demand from Diebold.[http://www.eff.org/Legal/ISP_liability/20031016_eff_pr.php]
On October 21, 2003, Defending the right of a fair, democratic election, [http://why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html Why War?] and the [http://scdc.sccs.swarthmore.edu/ Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons (SCDC)] announced that they are rejecting Diebold Elections Systems' cease and desist orders and are initiating a legal electronic civil disobedience campaign that will 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 [http://cultcom.com/mirror.html a '''permanent and public mirror'''] of the memos: documents whose public existence challenges the assumed presence of democracy in America. [http://why-war.com/features/diebold_pr.txt]
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]
The reason for Diebold's concern is obvious. They are being accused of [[high treason]] in the form of facilitating widespread [[electoral fraud]]:
=== [[electoral fraud]] ===
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.[http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60563,00.html]
''As of November 11, 2004, there were many issues raised re: the [[U.S. presidential election, 2004]] which have yet to be resolved.[http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/11/ale04089.html] Please see the [[Diebold Election Systems electoral fraud, 2004]] article for more details on these issues, which because of their fast-breaking nature should not be mixed up with these longer-term, independently verified, problems and issues above.''
==SourceWatch Resources==
