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Voting machine controversy
Cleveland Plain Dealer ^ | 8/28/03 | Julie Carr Smyth

Posted on 08/29/2003 4:47:28 PM PDT by angel12

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.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jsmyth@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272

© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Ohio
KEYWORDS: agitprop; cracklecrackle; deadnewbieposting; deadtrollposting; diebold; elections; gwb2004; kittenchow; mediabias; ohio; strikeupthebanned; thisaccountisbanned; vikingkitties; votingmachines; whatcontroversy; zot
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To: Poohbah
Hehehe...

It's been a while since I've seen a catnip thread for the Kitties :-)
21 posted on 08/29/2003 5:31:19 PM PDT by Tamzee (Finish your beer. There are sober people in India.)
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To: Tamsey

22 posted on 08/29/2003 5:33:15 PM PDT by dighton (NLC™)
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To: aculeus; dighton
Students, connect the dots!


23 posted on 08/29/2003 5:33:34 PM PDT by general_re (Today is a day for firm decisions! Or is it?)
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To: angel12
Ohio 's a Lock for Bush 2004

NOWHERE does Bush have a lock!!

24 posted on 08/29/2003 5:33:46 PM PDT by Lael (It is time to make "OUTSOURCING" the litmus test!!)
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To: angel12; All
Gets interesting when you read other articles written by Julie Carr Smyth...
25 posted on 08/29/2003 5:34:52 PM PDT by chance33_98 (WWJD - What would Jefferson Do?)
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To: angel12
Are you familiar with a Bev Harris, perchance?

Thanks.
26 posted on 08/29/2003 5:41:10 PM PDT by Tamzee (Finish your beer. There are sober people in India.)
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To: Lael; angel12
Go to the article--It is entitled "Voting Machine Controversy." Nowhere does the word "Lock" appear.

Sounds like whistling in the dark to me--and dishonest at that.

27 posted on 08/29/2003 5:49:28 PM PDT by jammer
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To: chance33_98
Check out: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/972311/posts

Our brand-new freeper angell2 seems to be trying awfully hard smear Bush with indications of voter fraud.
28 posted on 08/29/2003 5:57:39 PM PDT by Tamzee (Finish your beer. There are sober people in India.)
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To: aculeus; Poohbah; Tamsey; general_re
Angel12 was dispatched silently by our Gurkha-trained moderator.
29 posted on 08/29/2003 6:33:10 PM PDT by dighton (NLC™)
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To: dighton; hchutch
Angel12 was dispatched silently by our Gurkha-trained moderator.

Hoo boy. Now you're going to get the paleos whining about the moderators being outsourced to Nepal. :o)

30 posted on 08/29/2003 6:36:07 PM PDT by Poohbah (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.)
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To: Poohbah
Sahib, I am just now LMAO.
31 posted on 08/29/2003 6:41:11 PM PDT by dighton (NLC™)
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To: angel12
SO then - why not give us your take on it?
32 posted on 08/29/2003 6:56:34 PM PDT by chance33_98 (WWJD - What would Jefferson Do?)
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To: angel12
The potential for fraud with electronic voting systems is unacceptable, unless there is a verifiable audit trail, using paper. Unfortunately, the systems don't have that! And furthermore, groups like the League of Women Voters don't think it is necessary!

The website that is keeping up with this issue is:
www.blackboxvoting.com . Here is a excerpt from that site:

"According to Dr. David Dill of Stanford, formal questions were posed to Wyle and Ciber about what is done to test these machines, but both declined to answer.

Dr. Dill’s statement on electronic voting has gained the endorsement of several hundred computer scientists who agreed, even before the problems were found in the Diebold system, that electronic voting is inherently unsafe. “Computerized voting equipment is inherently subject to programming error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering. It is therefore crucial that voting equipment provide a voter-verifiable audit trail, by which we mean a permanent record of each vote that can be checked for accuracy by the voter before the vote is submitted, and is difficult or impossible to alter after it has been checked. Many of the electronic voting machines being purchased do not satisfy this requirement. Voting machines should not be purchased or used unless they provide a voter-verifiable audit trail; when such machines are already in use, they should be replaced or modified to provide a voter-verifiable audit trail. Providing a voter-verifiable audit trail should be one of the essential requirements for certification of new voting systems."

33 posted on 08/29/2003 7:02:07 PM PDT by citizenx7
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To: dighton
Angell2 dispatched silently... now back boasting to her DU buddies of her brave foray into Free Republic.

I sure as heck don't mind a frank discussing about the benefits and perils of voting equipment, but her nasty agenda was pretty plain to see :-(


34 posted on 08/29/2003 10:35:51 PM PDT by Tamzee (Finish your beer. There are sober people in India.)
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To: dighton
The good news is, looks like a babe I used to date.
The bad news is, on a good hair day!
35 posted on 08/29/2003 10:39:58 PM PDT by djf
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