Diebold Insider: Company Plagued by Technical Woes
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Ulrika Zugzwang
Magnanimous in Victory
Join date: 10 Jun 2004
Posts: 6,382
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12-10-2005 09:27
Elections are coming soon. Will there be enough time to remove Diebold from your district? A whistleblower from electronic voting heavyweight Diebold Election Systems Inc. raised grave concerns about the company’s electronic voting technology and of electronic voting in general, bemoaning an electoral system the insider feels has been compromised by corporate privatization.
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“This is a very dangerous precedent that needs to be stopped—that’s the corporate takeover of elections,” the source warned. “The majority of election directors don’t understand the gravity of what they’re dealing with. The bottom line is who is going to tamper with an election? A lot of people could, but they assume that no one will.” http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Diebold_insider__alleges_company_plagued_1206.html~Ulrika~
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Ulrika Zugzwang
Magnanimous in Victory
Join date: 10 Jun 2004
Posts: 6,382
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12-10-2005 09:29
My favorite quotes from the article: The insider harbors suspicions that Diebold may be involved in tampering with elections through its army of employees and independent contractors. The 2002 gubernatorial election in Georgia raised serious red flags, the source said.
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In Georgia’s 2002 Senate race, for example, nearly 60 percent of the state’s electorate by county switched party allegiances between the primaries and the general election.
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Harris revealed that a program patch titled “rob-georgia.zip” was left on an unsecured server and downloaded over the Internet by Diebold technicians before loading the unauthorized software onto Georgia voting machines. “They didn’t even TEST the fixes before they told us to install them,” Behler stated, adding that machines still malfunctioned after patches were installed. ~Ulrika~
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Ulrika Zugzwang
Magnanimous in Victory
Join date: 10 Jun 2004
Posts: 6,382
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12-10-2005 09:31
Oooh! Even better: The whistleblower is also skeptical of results from the November 2005 Ohio election, in which 88 percent of voters used touch screens and the outcome on some propositions changed as much as 40 percent from pre-election exit polls.
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“My feeling having been really deep inside the company is that initially Diebold, being a very conservative and Republican company, felt that if they controlled an election company, they could have great influence over the outcome,” the source, a registered independent, said. ~Ulrika~
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Ulrika Zugzwang
Magnanimous in Victory
Join date: 10 Jun 2004
Posts: 6,382
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12-10-2005 18:30
Has anyone out there voted on Diebold machines?
~Ulrika~
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Ulrika Zugzwang
Magnanimous in Victory
Join date: 10 Jun 2004
Posts: 6,382
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12-13-2005 12:04
Has anyone out there voted on Diebold machines?
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Chik-chik-chika-ahh
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Siro Mfume
XD
Join date: 5 Aug 2004
Posts: 747
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12-13-2005 12:09
What do they look like?
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Ulrika Zugzwang
Magnanimous in Victory
Join date: 10 Jun 2004
Posts: 6,382
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12-13-2005 12:14
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Chik-chik-chika-ahh
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Siro Mfume
XD
Join date: 5 Aug 2004
Posts: 747
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12-13-2005 13:01
nope, my area has machines that use buttons.
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Rose Karuna
Lizard Doctor
Join date: 5 Jun 2004
Posts: 3,772
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12-13-2005 13:25
Hmmmm..... Just interesting...
BREAKING: O'Dell leaves Diebold, Swidarski named new CEO
• 12 December 2005
NORTH CANTON, Ohio — Little more than a month after Diebold Inc. named Thomas W. Swidarski’s its new president and chief operating officer, company chairman and chief executive Walden W. O'Dell has announced his own immediate resignation.
According to a news release, Swidarski is assuming the role of CEO effective immediately, in addition to his duties as president and COO.
"This has been a very challenging year for the company," Swidarski said. "We are beginning to make progress to improve some of our performance issues, reduce our cost-structure by addressing inefficiencies in our manufacturing supply chain and software-development processes, and instill price discipline throughout the company."
Swidarski has held several senior-level operational, marketing, strategic and business-development positions within Diebold since joining the company in 1996. Before Diebold, Swidarski held various management positions in the financial industry, where he focused on marketing, product management, retail-bank profitability, branding and retail distribution. He also was a senior executive at PNC Bank and several other leading financial institutions.
Swidarski received a bachelor's degree in marketing and management at the University of Dayton (Ohio) and a master's degree in business management from Cleveland State University.
John Lauer, chairman of Diebold's board-governance committee and presiding independent director, said O'Dell's decision to leave the company was "personal." "The board of directors and Wally mutually agreed that his decision to resign at this time for personal reasons was in the best interest of all parties."
"The board and I have been impressed with the initiatives Tom has launched in his role as COO and feel Tom's demonstrated leadership is crucial to improving the company's performance moving forward," he added.
The board authorized Diebold to repurchase up to 4 million shares of its common stock in the open market. The company has repurchased approximately 3.3 million shares to date in 2005.
(Read also, Diebold authorizes 4-million share stock-repurchase.)
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Mike Westerburg
Who, What, Where?
Join date: 2 May 2004
Posts: 317
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12-13-2005 13:58
Hrmm.....I guess me not getting hired at Diebold was a good thing after all...
Kinda makes me a tad shakey looking foreward at other large tech firms that have the capability of providing electronic voting equipment. If it isn't the fact that large corps can be "bought" out by certian government agencies or affilliats with the mere mention of big tax breaks or the old "we will just shuffle the paperwork under the rug and your past tax history is well..history" it is also the possibility of insiders who have upper level access to internal programming/updating the machines to "fix" the votes. I guess it is getting easier and easier to steal things these days, even things as large as the presidency.
BTW, has anyone seen my wallet?
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"Life throws you a lemon, you make lemonade and then plant the seeds"
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Lianne Marten
Cheese Baron
Join date: 6 May 2004
Posts: 2,192
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12-13-2005 15:34
I always use absentee ballots. That way, it's at least a corrupt person working for the government that loses my vote instead of a corrupt private company.
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Chance Abattoir
Future Rockin' Resmod
Join date: 3 Apr 2004
Posts: 3,898
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12-13-2005 16:09
From: Ulrika Zugzwang Has anyone out there voted on Diebold machines? I refuse to vote, so no. 
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"The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence."
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Jake Reitveld
Emperor of Second Life
Join date: 9 Mar 2005
Posts: 2,690
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12-13-2005 16:12
So why is it paypal can protect my bank acoount information but electronic voting is frought with issues? everyone has an SSN, since the notion that SSN was not a public ID number fell through years ago, it seems that all we need to do is create a website, encrypt SSN's and away we go. Sor something like that.
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Chance Abattoir
Future Rockin' Resmod
Join date: 3 Apr 2004
Posts: 3,898
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12-13-2005 16:18
From: Jake Reitveld it seems that all we need to do is create a website, encrypt SSN's and away we go. I can imagine it now... 
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"The mob requires regular doses of scandal, paranoia and dilemma to alleviate the boredom of a meaningless existence."
-Insane Ramblings, Anton LaVey
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Ulrika Zugzwang
Magnanimous in Victory
Join date: 10 Jun 2004
Posts: 6,382
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12-13-2005 16:30
From: Chance Abattoir I can imagine it now... !
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