Posted on 08/31/2003 11:11:50 AM PDT by Theyknow
Voting machine controversy
08/28/03
Julie Carr Smyth Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus - The head of a company 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."
The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.
O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund - partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington.
The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the 2004 election.
Blackwell's announcement is still in limbo because of a court challenge over the fairness of the selection process by a disqualified bidder, Sequoia Voting Systems.
In his invitation letter, O'Dell asked guests to consider donating or raising up to $10,000 each for the federal account that the state GOP will use to help Bush and other federal candidates - money that legislative Democratic leaders charged could come back to benefit Blackwell.
They urged Blackwell to remove Diebold from the field of voting-machine companies eligible to sell to Ohio counties.
This is the second such request in as many months. State Sen. Jeff Jacobson, a Dayton-area Republican, asked Blackwell in July to disqualify Diebold after security concerns arose over its equipment.
"Ordinary Ohioans may infer that Blackwell's office is looking past Diebold's security issues because its CEO is seeking $10,000 donations for Blackwell's party - donations that could be made with statewide elected officials right there in the same room," said Senate Democratic Leader Greg DiDonato.
Diebold spokeswoman Michelle Griggy said O'Dell - who was unavailable to comment personally - has held fund-raisers in his home for many causes, including the Columbus Zoo, Op era Columbus, Catholic Social Services and Ohio State University.
Ohio GOP spokesman Jason Mauk said the party approached O'Dell about hosting the event at his home, the historic Cotswold Manor, and not the other way around. Mauk said that under federal campaign finance rules, the party cannot use any money from its federal account for state- level candidates.
"To think that Diebold is somehow tainted because they have a couple folks on their board who support the president is just unfair," Mauk said.
Griggy said in an e-mail statement that Diebold could not comment on the political contributions of individual company employees.
Blackwell said Diebold is not the only company with political connections - noting that lobbyists for voting-machine makers read like a who's who of Columbus' powerful and politically connected.
"Let me put it to you this way: If there was one person uniquely involved in the political process, that might be troubling," he said. "But there's no one that hasn't used every legitimate avenue and bit of leverage that they could legally use to get their product looked at. Believe me, if there is a political lever to be pulled, all of them have pulled it."
Blackwell said he stands by the process used for selecting voting machine vendors as fair, thorough and impartial.
As of yesterday, however, that 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.
http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/106207171078040.xml
Because getting stuff like is out early is the best thing to do...
Tis Voting Machine Company Owner was stupid to say any thing like this ....You and I know what he meant but look how easy it can be spun in a headline
"Voting Machine Owner Committed To Give Votes To Bush".....
It’s perfect ammo for the Dem propaganda campaign... so adress it now while it's harmless
So, if someone is involved in any way in the election process, even being an officer of a company that builds (but doesn't operate or control) voting machines they are forbidden to participate in the political process? He didn't say (as the article implies) that he will change how the votes tabulated by the machines his company builds are counted to benefit Bush. He said he will work, by raising money and participating in the LEGAL political process, for the re-election of George Bush. Somehow the rats want to spin that to disqualify him and his firm from participating in the bids for a public contracts.
As if Democrat donors haven't gotten the lions share of government contracts for 100 years. And how about saint Rather? Raising money for Democrats ought to be grounds for CBS to lose all of their FCC licenses, don't you think?
True if your going to be somthing be the best you can be.....so
If your going to be corrupt ...be the best .... become a Democrat
The DUh crowd has been bleating precisely that "argument" for at least two years now.
There is little question, though, that we can never totally trust the results of any election conducted via computerized voting, and such machines should not be allowed to be used (and indeed, I give it less than ten years until they start being outlawed state by state as various scandals pop up, real or imagined). For all the mess that Florida 2000 turned out to be, at least we had actual physical ballots to deal with.
The optimal solution, of course, would be going back to something along the lines of the old standards: Paper ballots in sealed boxes; monitors from both parties (and anyone else that wants to watch) at every precinct; multiple police officers riding along as ballot boxes are delivered to the county courthouse; all boxes opened and all votes counted in front of cameras from the news media, local government and any public citizens that wished to make their own records ... along with laws requiring proof of identity in order to vote.
I attended a strategy meeting on behalf of Jim Rhodes who was the Repubican nominee for Governor. The Democrats were running incumbant Governor Giligan. I remember being told that rural Ohio would have to over come the estimated 50,000 votes the democrats would steal from the voting machines in Cleveland.
Well election day came and the vote counting began. I was doing ohio coverage. At about 2 Am with the inner city precincts of Cleveland still out Rhodes was barely ahead in the count. There was no way he could win. So Rhodes conceeded and went home to bed.
Shortly their after Cleveland came in. And Rhodes had carried cleveland by a slim margin and was elected Governor to a 4 year term.
Al Wallace, a Rhodes assistant went to Rhodes Upper Arlington home to awake Rhodes and tell him he had won. It turned out the Cuyahoga Co. Demoratic party chief was ticked off at Governor Gilligan and did not steal a sligle vote for him.
For the democrats computerized voting machines are a death warrent. Just as they did in Florida in 2000 Democrats depend on stealing votes in inner city precincts where in contravetnion of law all the poll watchers are Democrats. It is true in the inner precincts of every big city all the poll watchers are Democrats. It is against the law, but the area is so dangerous every republican is afraid to set foot in the precinct. It gives Democrats a million opportunities to cheat and steal hundreds of thouands of votes nationwide. But computerized voting where the machines can be remotely monitored by both parties brings the cheating to a halt.
Democrats are very afraid of honesty.
Unless a RAT programmer saw to it that the numbers were being incorrectly inflated all along. Then the only thing that's perfect is the crime.
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