Maybe you should email this story to David Bear, since he seems to be more than a little bit "out of the loop" about the company for which is a spokeman.

I'm sure he'd be REALLY ANXIOUS to correct his statements and to look into the problems - NOT!

Hats off to Brad/Andrew and Roxanne for digging up the truth. To add more oil to the fire (sorry pun intented), I have proof that the machine failures outlined in the GA SOS "PunchList" (bug list) continued in 2004. I purchased 28 counties of election data and found Bibb county for example had 2 machines fail causing 123 and 79 entire votes to just disappear. It's not clear how the votes were counted (or if they were counted) but it is totally clear that the machines did not boot (did not have screens working) election night per the pollworker notes and the blanks on the "Ballot recap sheet" which is filled out by a human writing down what totals were on the Diebold Touchscreen. This proves that all the bugs found in 2002 were NEVER FIXED. I have proof from Randolph county that they counted more absentee votes than voters again a Diebold machine bug. The problems go on and on... check out my website for a catalog of all the Diebold problems never fixed www.countpaperballots.com and specifically view this http://www.countpaperballots.com/bibb.htm to see how this machine failure puts into question the House Seat lost by Democrat Joan Dixon to Republican Freeman and how that seat cost Georgia their Democrat leadership in the house... this is concrete evidence that Diebold technology failures (and the cooperation by "Zealot" Zell Miller Democrat Cathy Cox) has screwed Georgians out of representative government....

I have a letter to the editor on this posted as comment #2 to Brad's "On the Road Again" above that might come in handy. What will it take to get people as pissed off as we are???

It looks like more trouble for the Bush brother sits

who on the board of directors for Diebold.

Someone should hack the vote and set all the results to 0. Then we can get rid of the damn machines and go to the hand counting of paper ballots. No jury in the world would convict them if they were caught.

excerpt from the Diebold section in THE COMPANIES Chapter of the newly launched website WHO'S COUNTING!!

DIEBOLD

Diebold, of North Canton, Ohio, has received the lion’s share of publicity in the election fraud story, but is hardly alone in the tangled web of complicity. The Election Systems Division President, until recently, Bob Urosevich, (Todd’s brother—see ES&S) is often credited with overseeing original software development for both ES&S and Diebold Election Systems.

Sometime after the multi-million dollar ‘mix up’ in California, Urosevich was replaced by Tom Swidarski. Even Diebold seems unclear about just when that was, as they can be found citing Urosevich as President in August 2003, then the following month referring to Swidarski as President, and in December 2003, it’s suddenly reversed to Urosevich again. In any case Urosevich did eventually yield to Swidarski who stepped up from a Senior VP position. Swidarski comes from the world of electronic wizardry himself, as a pioneer of biometrics and ATM video screens.

Unlike the parent company in Ohio, Diebold Election Systems, formerly known as “Global Election Systems”, is located in Texas. Global’s former Director, Michael K.Graye, spent four years in prison from 1996-2000 for stock fraud, then went back in again in 2003 for tax fraud and misappropriation of $18 million from four companies. Bob Urosevich got in on the ground floor when Diebold bought out Global as he was President of Global Election Systems at the time.

-snip-

Diebold Roll Call

Diebold Company CEO, Wally O’Dell, and longtime Diebold Director and Chairman “Tim” Timken, are steadfast Republican Loyalists and major contributors to Republican candidates, including George W. Bush. Both are members of Bush’s “Pioneers and Rangers” program, donating from $100,000 to over $350,000 respectively to President Bush’s reelection campaign, thereby being invited to the Crawford Ranch in appreciation. Timken’s company and family have contributed over a million dollars to the GOP.

As an aside, word has it from German Der Spiegel magazine, that Tim Timken is to be our newly appointed Ambassador to Germany... despite having zero diplomatic experience and not speaking any German. Diebold announced Timken’s retirement on June 30, 2005. Maybe the Germans will soon be enjoying the capricious temperament of Diebold’s GEMS tabulators as well.

-snip-

Cocaine, and Felons, and Prison—Oh my!

My personal favorite Diebold exec. biography is the one of its former Senior Vice President and Director (when it was “Global Election Systems”) ---and Senior Programmer in 2001 and 2002, just prior to the Diebold acquisition-- Jeff Dean. Dean is credited with the “upgrades” to the GEMS programs. According to Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting, besides his work on the tabulator systems, Dean was largely responsible for programming a version of the Optical Scan software that was widely used in our last election. And the Windows CE operating system used by the Touch Screens as well.

It is reported that no less than five of Diebold Election Systems developers are convicted felons, but Dean’s case takes the cake.

Beginning in 1982, he was working at a Seattle law firm, Culp, Gunderson & Grader, in accounting systems. In 1988, the firm noticed some discrepancies in their books… Jeff Dean had altered the books and embezzled the money for himself over a two and a half year time frame at the firm. He eventually pled guilty to 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, which are enumerated in his case no. 89-1-04034-1. The record stated that:

"the crimes and their cover up involved a high degree of sophistication and planning in the use and alteration of records in the computerized accounting system that defendant maintained for the victim, and the defendant used his position of trust and fiduciary responsibility as a computer systems and accounting consultant for the victim to facilitate the commission of the offenses—"

Dean was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to six years in prison. As part of his sentence, the Judge ordered Dean to inform any and all future employers of his felony conviction, and instructed him that under no circumstances would he be permitted to handle other people’s money after he was released. Unfortunately for Americans, the Judge’s reprimand fell short of prohibiting Dean from handling other people’s votes...

The GEMS computer tabulating system functions very similarly to the computerized accounting system. According to the report, Dean used his expertise by planting ‘back doors’ in his employer’s software, allowing him to steal nearly half a million dollars over the years all the while evading detection.

Is this starting to sound familiar? See "How GEMS works, Column 2 " chapter if not.

--Much much more at WHO'S COUNTING

another small snip from same section and Chapter of WHO'S COUNTING

...Georgia, at least, couldn’t say they weren’t forewarned. Three months prior to the election, engineer and Product Deployment Manager, Ron Behler of ABSS (American Business Systems & Services) was hired by Diebold to check out the Touch Screen equipment. According to Behler, the typical failure rate in the machinery is about 3%. However, on this particular spot check, he encountered a near 25% to 30% failure rate. Each time he’d repair the machines - they’d break down again and again. Screen freezes, battery failures, and so on. After informing the Georgia state officials of the myriad of problems, he heard from Diebold... And they weren’t happy. Behler was told, in no uncertain terms, to shut up or he’d be fired.

On Election Day—Touch Screens froze up in 20 Counties. Sixty-seven memory cards in the Atlanta area just disappeared, but were later found. With no protection on the cards, Behler claims that he alone could have changed the vote totals using his laptop, in a matter of hours. Diebold’s trial run in America did not kick off so smoothly.

It’s not as if Georgia selected Diebold in any attempt at being thrifty either—the Diebold bid was the most expensive one in the state... One other interesting fact, Georgia election code required a paper trail on the DRE TouchScreens.... but ATM manufacturer Diebold did not supply them...

-much more at WHO'S COUNTING

It absolutely amazes me how everyone quotes via other web sites touting the same false mantra. I went to Ms Hustler's website with the 'documentation'. If the documentation was read, one would realize that the answer is in there! I would encourage each of you to be at your polling station and election office on election day. There you will see how the election is run and how it is difficult to 'break the chain of custody' and commit fraud on these machines. EACH AND EVERY election official that I have worked with are grateful for the machines and the amount of accuracy they have now. Please compare Ms. Hustlers accuracy of Georgia to other states. And you want to complain about Diebold machines????? Please! No other state even comes close to the accuracy and least amount of problems Georgia had in Novembers big election. NO SYSTEM IS PERFECT AND ANYONE CAN BE BRIBED. But, it takes a lot of people for that to happen and if it could with the voting machines, it can with paper ballots too! In fact, it would probably be easier. In fact, many of your writings automatically presume that everyone is out to change the election. These wonderful people that volunteer and work so hard to keep the election going and help are the ones you are accusing. AGAIN- GO OUT THERE AND VOLUNTEER AND STAY AT A POLLING LOCATION!!! YOUR MORE THAN WELCOME (provided your not disruptive)

Allow me to close with remarking on the quotes of the cost...not even close! Granted, it is not cheap to run the election with the machines, but in the long run it is cheaper than having god knows how many people recounting the ballots all night and next day long. HA! For this world of instant gratification that would not be tolorated. Shoot, it would probably be people like the ones posted here complaining the loudest of why it takes so long to count!

Keep up the watch, but keep your facts straight!

And you want to complain about Diebold machines????? Please! No other state even comes close to the accuracy and least amount of problems Georgia had in Novembers big election. NO SYSTEM IS PERFECT

...

Analogous Scenarios from the world of elections to daily life

For the Sports lover

It’s the World Series game, Yankees vs Marlins. George Steinbrunner (Yankee’s Owner) announces he will personally be officiating the ballgame, supervising all the calls, and bringing in his very own Yankee-trained umpire crew to help out. George assures us they’re well-trained and well-paid by the New York Yankees management. Don’t worry though-- George crosses his heart they won’t show any bias towards his team.

Oh—and they’ve decided to eliminate all cameras and recording devices this year...NO broadcasting allowed anywhere in the stadium. Oh yeah, and I forgot to say, the series will not be open to the public this year either. How will you know the score? No problem. George says he will personally keep track of all scoring privately during the game, on his own laptop. He will announce the results to the public later that night after the game has finished, and he’s had a chance to add it all up.

George and the team said they just didn’t feel it was necessary to broadcast/ record the play and the running scores, and besides....it would cost more. He says” You gotta trust the system.” After all, they promise not to cheat.

Play Ball!

What are ya? Some kinda conspiracy nut?

************************
For the Investor

Your Mutual Fund statement arrives and it shows your account with negative $75,000, along with an envelope and an invoice requesting that you pay Friendly Financial Institution the $75,000 you now owe them. But you remember from last month having six figures in the account – there have been no withdrawals and two very hefty deposits since then. Turns out a computer error was responsible for counting your recent deposits backwards (as did the Florida, Georgia and Ohio vote tabulators), subtracting them rather than adding them. Will you shrug it off, try to get over it? It is an anomaly. Do you move on... or do you attempt to correct the situation, thereby risking being perceived as a “sore loser”?

********************

Enlighten yourself Nanosan. Read.

WHO'S COUNTING

Nanasan, my mom is a volunteer poll worker, and indeed she is not stealing votes. That's not the issue. Please read more carefully and do some research on computer security before suggesting that others get their facts straight about the "chain of custody" being breached. Thank you.

Nanasan,
Having worked several elections, includiing several in Palm Beach County, you are an idiot. You know nothing. We do not have a secure voting system in this country. We do not have a democracy in which one man equals one vote. I am sorry you are so misinformed.
If you believe in democracy and this country, it doesn't matter whether you are a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent, you should be demanding a safe and secure voting system. We do not have that in Florida, Ohio or many other states. Period. Period. Period.

It sounds to me like someone should challenge in court the presidential electors from Georgia (and any other states where this is applicable) and their existing collection of electronic voting machines, based on the evidence that the election system there was in violation of the HAVA.

If we could have the courts throw out any votes reported from electronic voting machines, as unverifiable, then we could not only get rid of the machines and Wally O'Dell's influence, we could ensure that no other hackers could change election results. It would also pretty well ensure that no electronic voting machines could be used until they were more thorougly validated and include at minimum a paper ballot to verify the visual 'ballot' the voter creates.

Evidence that one of the programmers was a convicted felon is shocking and must be used.

Nanasan sounds suspiciously like a Diebold rep. At least he/she has repeated virtually every "company line" I've ever heard.

Nanasan, please feel free to contact me via Emaill, and I'll give you my phone number. We can chat all you wish, and you are more than welcome to give Diebold's side of the story, and I will do my best to both tell it, and refute any of the "evidence" you wish to present. But you'll have to do so openly, in at least you'll need to give me your name so I can check out your creds.

Beyond that, I'm afraid, your propaganda --- and insinuation that *anybody* here is suggestion Elections Officials have done anything untoward (besides from those Elections Officials, like Matt Damschroeder in Ohio who accepted $10,000 from a Diebold lobbyist and passed it onto the RNC, etc.) is an attempt to pull a "Support the Troops" attack against those of us who give a damn about secure, verifiable and transparent elections. Just like those wingnuts with their "Support the Troops" signs attacking Anti-War folks (who are certainly not against the troops, and support them as much or more than any of the Pro-War folks I've ever met).

Anyway, your offer to discuss, debate, share your views with me in the "open" is welcome. Your subversive "geurilla" attempts to shore up the reputation of an irresponsible, unpatriotic company like Diebold may work elsewhere...but not here.

I just wanted to point out the Catch-22 that Gumbel's excellent article creates in his closing sentence: "That, ultimately, will be up to the voters to decide." Huh? He just finished telling us that their vote counting system is hopelessly insecure and hackable. So how exactly are we ever to know what those voters "decide" with the current system in place??? That takes a VOTE. And that's why COUNTING the vote openly is so vital...

And that's what the Democratic Party and the DSCC and the DCCC are pretending is a NON-ISSUE for 2006. They are kidding themselves if they think that people will be volunteering time and money for another wild goose chase after more allegedly-winnable congressional seats, with the same old, same old outsourced corporate vote-counting in place....

But it's great to see Georgia's issues covered so well, and I hope his book will move the 'unfixing-the-fix' process forward.

[Tried to post this at HuffPost too - don't think it went through.]

Georgia is also crooked? I'm shocked, shocked!

I guess this means they're not going to reopen the Ray Lemme murder case. For the record, I've heard nothing back from the attorney general or the representatives I wrote to several months ago. Has anyone else received a reply?

Re: anonymous #14... Yes, and how vocally did Max Cleland speak out against hackable voting machines, prior to 2002--when those machines caused his defeat?

Oh, how I wish we had a meaningful third party! With a few exceptions, the Dems will all roast in hell for their complicit silence over the past years.

For Unirealist: Right you are. Democrats at the national level are really just Republicans with fewer Wall Street connections (but they have some, too).

Back in 1992, Ross Perot won 19% of the vote as a third-party candidate, despite being ridiculed in the media for his short stature, staccato method of speaking, and his many charts and signboards. Why did this happen?

For one reason, because Congress swept the Savings & Loan scandal under the table. And why did they do that? Because each party had a national hero who was implicated in the Keating Five(John McCain, Republican, and John Glenn, Democrat). Better to just ignore it, right?

That's what Democrats have done with election fraud. They have to know Gore and Kerry won (and if Gore had taken office, he'd have been running himself in 2004). So why have they and the mainstream media avoided the issue? In order of importance, here are my reasons:

1) Democrats rely on the same money sources Republicans do. If they raised hell, or even if they supported John Conyers' efforts to expose fraud, they'd tick off Corporate America and Wall Street. Advertisers would pull ads from newspapers and TV networks. The stock market would implode, and rich Democrats own stock, too.

2) Democrats are guility of fraud, too...albeit on a much smaller scale. Barrack Obama's reply to a reporter who asked, "Why didn't you vote with Barbara Boxer?" was, "Let's get real. There was fraud on both sides." In other words, neither party can address the issue of election fraud because both parties have dirty hands. Ridiculous. It's clear Richardson called off the New Mexico investigation because he knew fraud was bi-partisan and would reflect badly on him as governor.

3) The old "sore loser" stigma. Nobody accuses a football coach who calls for instant replay of being a poor sport; if the referee missed a call, it should be reversed. But for some reason, people who cry foul after elections become "sore losers" and "conspriacy theorists." It's pure nonsense, and we're now paying the price for having "elected" the biggest ignoramus to ever occupy the White House.

4) Fear of retaliation by the White House. Bush loves Democrats like Silicon Valley Joe Lieberman, who still maintains the invasion of Iraq has made us safer and still believes stock options are used properly by high-tech companies. If a Democrat attacks Bush too vigorously, the Rove dirty-trick machine goes to work (see Max Cleland...see Swift Boat veterans...see Tom Daschle).

Nanasan has missed one critical point:

How long did we wait after Election Day 2000 to determine the winner? Long enough for a manual recount?

Nanasan missed a lot more than that, Susan. She obviously believes that fraud is only possible AT A POLLING SITE, where she says a vast conspiracy is required to hack the machines.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Central tabulators aren't found at polling sites, and that's where the worst fraud occurred in Florida (2000 and 2004) and Ohio (2004). That's where blocks of votes can be shifted, or even programmed in advance to shift according to a formula that is only revealed by source code...which in turn is proprietary to wonderful corporate citizens like Diebold.

She also refers to selfless volunteers who work at polling stations for nothing, then contradicts herself by suggesting that hand counting of paper ballots (by these same volunteers, presumably) would be costlier in the long run than Diebold's machines. Perhaps she can run the numbers for us and explain how this works out.

Back to the drawing board, Nanosan. Let's us know in advance when you decide to make sense.

Just remember it cost $56 per vote using equipment manufactured by felons who don't even qualify to vote in some states!

Imagine if every time you used an ATM you payed $56 in fees for the transaction...

HAVA was a "have", election fraud paid for by the people for the people...

:( And now my country is trying to abolish compulsory voting.

As a Georgia voter, I am livid. I always knew that Saxby Chambliss did not beat Max Cleland. And I seriously doubt if Sonny Perdue won either.
I would like to know if we can sue the Secretary of State or whomever saddled us with this unfair and unverifiable voting system. Is there an ongoing action? I am a Democrat, but I don't give a hoot if Democrats are caught in the crossfire. Let the chips fall where they may. Anyone who sold out the voters of the state and wasted taxpayers' money deserves punishment. Not only is this public malfeasance at least, it's criminal negligence, or perhaps even deliberate complicity in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the voters of Georgia. Heads need to roll and the voting machines should be destroyed. Forget about a paper trail, because they can program the machine to show the vote as you cast it, but still flip it internally. Paper ballots are the only way to go. In the meantime, would someone instruct me regarding any ongoing or considered lawsuits? I would like to join the action. This country does not belong to the corporations and the whores who serve them instead of the public good. Let's expose these criminals and take our country back.

Hi Renda Downey!

I'm in GA, too and I'm livid --- yes, my hair is on FIRE!

Here's another site to go for more of Roxanne Jekot's work:

www.voterchoice.org

We absolutely have got to do something about dumping Cathy Cox AND the hideous vote stealing machines.

Let's TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!!!

Question :How many voter use each E-voting machine on election day?
How long would it take to hand count one machines votes if they where paper ballots?
How many machines in an average poll place?
How many "election personal" are at these polling places?
Why do you need the results on the "day" of the election?
What would be the down side of waiting 3 or 4 days?
Why not vote on Saturdays only?

For Renda Downey: Forgive my cynicism, but your neighbors in Georgia have allowed a murder to be excused as a suicide (Ray Lemme). The Valdosta Police Chief reopened the case last December, then shut it down again AT THE REQUEST OF AN UNNAMED PERSON AT THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, which just happened to be the subject of Lemme's investigation when he died.

I wrote to the Georgia Attorney General and to two U.S. representatives from your state about the case over three months ago. None of the three has so much as acknowledged my letter, let alone explained why the Lemme case was shut down.

It seems to me, Renda, that people who see fit to cover up murders, and refuse to acknowledge polite correspondence from citizens in connection with them, can't be trusted to fix crooked elections. Good luck...but you're fighting an entrenched system of corruption and dishonesty in your state.

Just Desserts for elected officials who allowed the use of Diebold (or like machines) to begin with: They should be forced to use a 'paperless' banking system, e.g. "You thought you had $2,000,000 on deposit with us, Senator? Our records show a balance of $2.00. Too bad you don't have any PAPER RECORDS to prove your point!"

"The 2002 election questioned above, was when Senator, War Hero and 3-time amputee Max Cleland (D-GA) lost his seat in a surpise victory by Republican, Saxby Chambliss who had run advertisements questioning the patriotism of Cleland, and comparing the Vietnam War hero and 3-time amputee to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein."

I may not be the most sophisticated bulb in the chandelier, but how the F*#K could ANYONE question the patriotism of a Vietnam triple amputee veteran?!? (Much less make such an outrageous comparision) And get away with both?

I hope Diebold goes belly-up.

Now they've filled an order for Maryland.
More than 1,900 touch-screen voting stations provided to Baltimore City completes a uniform system of 18,800 units across the state.

comment#12challenge in court. Good idea. Class action law suits against diebold?