Accept no substitutes

Diebold in Ohio

Could it be that one reason that the Kerry folks aren’t conceding Ohio (yet) is that there is another story waiting there to be told? Voting machine maker Ohio-based Diebold has been all over the news for the past year drawing the attention of the SEC and of Ohio papers ever since Diebold Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Walden O’Dell “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the president” in an August 2003 fund-raising letter.

As computer security folks have noticed — and this concerns me much more –, Diebold’s other side has been to attack those who point out flaws in the voting machine integrity. In doing so, Diebold was found to have strongly overreached their copyright monopoly rights and was fined $125K. So even without the questionable political ethics, Diebold voting machines cast a shadow on the elections this year and possibly in the future. This last is reason for concern for both Republicans and Democrats as security flaws can be exploited by partisons and/or criminals with or without political affiliation.
If this long recount gives us a more open and more secure method of electronic voting, the wait and investigation will be worth it in securing democracy’s future. Verified Voting Foundation and Electronic Frontier Foundation are among the organizations on the case. And the country that invented secret ballots knows how to get eVoting done right.

More eVoting news in Wired.

UPDATE: Slashdot has this story on the subject “Blackboxvoting.org Raises Vote-Audit FOIA Request”

UPDATE: eVoting loses votes in North Carolina!

UPDATE: WISH-TV questions Indiana votes in interview with ES&S — the company formerly headed by surprise Senator Hagel of Nebraska. Among the nuggets in the interview: ” An investigation by the Palm Beach Post revealed ES&S had a secret agreement to kick back a percentage of its profits to the Florida Association of Counties.” and “The investigation also found that the lobbyist representing both ES&S and the Florida Association of Counties was Sandra Mortham, a former Florida secretary of state and former running mate of Gov. Jeb Bush.”

UPDATE: Bush gets 4,258 votes out of only 638 votes cast in Ohio precinct AP reports. Machines from Election Systems & Software Inc. aka ES&S are responsible.

1 Comment

  1. Tanner Lovelace

    From your “eVoting loses votes in North Carolina!” link:

    Election difficulties also were reported in a number of other North Carolina counties, including nearby Carteret, where 4,530 early votes were irretrievably lost.

    I wonder if this can be used as a good argument to the “powers that be”(tm) in Raleigh that e-voting without a paper trail shouldn’t be allowed?

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