Executive Calls Vote-Machine Letter an Error

[Freddie Stubbs]

Walden W. O'Dell, the chairman and chief executive of Diebold Inc., said on Monday that it had been a "huge mistake" for him, as the head of a voting machine company, to express support for President Bush's re-election in a fund-raising letter last year. Mr. O'Dell also said the company was working to address computer security problems and build voter confidence in its wares.

In a meeting with reporters and editors from The New York Times, Mr. O'Dell by turns apologized for mistakes and stood up for what he said the company had done right.

"The country had a crisis" after the 2000 debacle, he said; his company realized that "we could help; it would be an opportunity to serve, and it would be a good business."

Mr. O'Dell drew criticism of his company in August when he sent an invitation to a fund-raising party that said, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." He said he had not written it himself, though he declined to say who had, and intended only to sign a "party invitation."

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/12/politics/campaign/12vote.html

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. It might have been an error, but yet, somehow, it doesn't seem

that he cares except that now he knows he's gonna be scrutinized a little more tightly, so now he has to go to work to figure out a whole new algorithm to give the election to Shrub, but with a smaller, less attention-drawing lead.

That's the only reason he's sorry.

[Philostopher]

5. Yeah -- his 'mistake'

was failing to keep his bootlicking sufficiently private. If he'd just told Cheney he'd deliver Ohio to Bush on the phone, during one of their regular calls, it all would have been fine. He just got a little giddy over his new romance, like we all sometimes do, and had to tell the whole world.

[Bog Frog]

2. all I can say is

:wow:
What an asshole.

[teryang]

3. How are intentional actions a mistake?

Maybe he means revealing his political motives and bias are a mistake. Fund raising is an intentional deliberate process. It wasn't a mistake, it was wrong.

He isn't being criticized just for his transparent conflict of interest, he's criticized for having unsecure voting machines, whose results cannot be verified, and which are readily subject to tampering and manipulation with no remedy. His company is undermining the efficacy of elections and constitutional government.

[hatrack]

4. Gosh, Walden, was it a mistake to get caught?

Sure sounds like it!

[Moderator]

6. duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x549291