O'Dell/Diebold/Ohio - look what O'Dell said

[donsu]

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."

-snip-

http://www.cleveland.com/politics/index.ssf?/base/ispol/106207393874610.xml


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.

-snip-

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.

-snip-

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."
-snip-
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do the voters of Ohio stand a chance?

[gristy]

1. What we really need is a copy of that email.

n/t

[shirlden]

2. Please see my post

BBV Alert.
Ohio Duers, we have an opportunity here to really get some feces hitting the blades. How should we handle this?? Who will volunteer to lead the Ohio contingent? We need to have an over-all plan and lots of good activist.

I think we should go for the juggler. Hit Sec. of State Blackwell with demo's, phone calls, letters. Let him know we will hold him personally responsibility.

Ideas and volunteers needed, please

[donsu]

3. good luck Shirlden - hope Ohioians care enough

nt

[farmbo]

5. We need a "Hacker's Challenge" issued to Sec of State/Diebold

How can he refuse? But if he does-- which he probably will-- then we roll demonstrators out in front of the State Office Tower. Chicken outfits would be a nice touch.

Several state reps-- Chris Redfern and Dan Stewart-- have already expressed their displeasure over Diebold's remarks, and their offices could provide publicity fire-power.

Still, you need some expert hackers to back up the challenge, and that's not my department.

I'll provide some money and time, but BBV is going to have to issue the challenge.

[gristy]

7. "hacker's challenges"

are fraught with danger. And they do nothing to expose the danger of insider fraud. Let's see how the one in GA plays out first.

[bandy]

4. Isn't that what Jeb said?

He said he was committed to delivering Florida to his brother in 2000. Don't live near Ohio but wishing you luck in hammering away with this.

[zbdent]

6. Not necessarily that they contributed, it's just that

they only contributed to Repubs. Not a dime over the years to a Dem candidate.

[Cha]

8. I want this guy o'dell to eat those words! I don't care if

he puts BBQ sauce on it!

[jiacinto]

9. That is a clear conflict of interest

I usually ignore most of the voting machine conspiracy nonsense here, but this is a clear conflict of interest. And this is actually something that makes me take this matter more seriously than I did before.

[Andy_Stephenson]

10. conspiracy nonsense?!?!?!?

Carlos...you need to wake up and smell the fucking coffee.

[jiacinto]

11. I take some of it as just extreme ranting

I do think there are legitimate issues, but I think that people here don't realize that sometimes the voters do pick Republicans in close elections.

[Andy_Stephenson]

14. You really should catch up on the inofrmation Carlos

before you slam people that are researching a legtimate problem. Boy sometimes you make some real asinine statements.

[jiacinto]

18. It's not assinine

I think some people scream fraud before they have conclusive proof. It becomes a case of the boy who cried wolf. The boy with his flock kept on making flases. So the day when a wolf actually showed up no one cared.

[shirlden]

15. Agree some folks do vote for Repugs

especially here in Ohio. That is not a problem. The problem is having your vote counted the way you cast it, no matter who you voted for. This is the conspiracy angle Duers are concerned about. Electronic voting is not secure...can be and likely has been hacked in some places. We must keep in mind that this is a non-partisan issue. This is equal opportunity vote fraud. Anyone can do it. Your local hacker, the mafia, foreign govs, not just a Dem-Repig issue. Without a paper ballot for backup we have nothing. On the other hand if we insist on a paper ballot then why do we need 5 billion dollars or more worth of electronic voting machines? The answer is we don't. That could scare the companies making these tinker toys if we figured out we really don't need them at all. Just because the technology is there, doesn't mean we need to go that way.

Excuse rant. This is a big issue with me.

[stickdog]

17. That's like saying that avoiding nuke waste isn't important because

people get sick and die whether they drink it or not.

[Generic Other]

12. I think if you googled the big names in the voting "industry"

you would feel more concerned, jiacinto. The conflicts of interest are everywhere.

They are privatizing elections, outsourcing the job to Republicans and retired Pentagon generals with money and power.

It's one thing to be a skeptic, but don't be one before you've looked for yourself.

[Andy_Stephenson]

13. and not to forget Robert Gates

former CIA.

[CatWoman]

19. just when I thought you couldn't get any more haughty

you come along and then, "WHAM"!!!!!

Just because you think it's "conspiracy nonsense" does not make it so.

I'll go one step further and say that comment is a huge slap in the face to all here who have toiled on that issue.

[gulliver]

16. That disqualifies Diebold's voting systems.

If I were Diebold's competitors, I would make a big stink about this. O'Dell must be out of his mind if he thinks he can get away with this.

[preciousdove]

20. But isn't that what we said about 2000, 911 and WMD?

:shrug:

[BevHarris]

21. Consider this possiblity: The leak was deliberate

I've been thinking that Diebold may be quietly trying to sell off the election division. They have to. They know more's going to hit the fan, and they can't let it infect the rest of their business.

Look at their press releases -- they've just added larger, more lucrative things to their offerings. Why would they take a risk on the whole business because of voting machines?

So, they can't really sell the division because the machines are flawed, can they? No takers (especially if Demactivist's challenge is still on the table).

Instead, they leak the political activities of O'Dell. Then he says, "you know, I think this election business is really good but to avoid the appearance of impropriety, I'm going to divest our company of it."

Then they sell it to another crony who uses the same security-flawed secret system (but claims they fixed some things, and perhaps put the new VoteHere system inside, read, the PR whitewash "gold standard" (maybe).

Indeed, the only reason I can think of why they didn't dump Bob Urosevich, President of Diebold Election Systems, whose company created the original software that the Hopkins/Rice report found so flawed, the guy in charge when they left all those files on an open FTP, the guy whose brother co-founded ES&S -- well, he's a liability if they keep the division but an asset worth $$$ if they sell it. Because of course, the execs are worth something if you can make them tell you all their secrets and get them on a consulting agreement with a noncompete.

Just a thought, folks. Still, I say let's make hay with this.

Bev