The money pit: Diebold vs. America

[Amaryllis]

Elections & Voting
The money pit: Diebold vs. America
By Denis Wright
Online Journal Contributing Writer


May 11, 2006, 00:50

Georgia was the first state in the nation to go 100 percent with electronic voting, thanks to Secretary of State Cathy Cox. This was a mantle she carried, and continues to carry, proudly. In fact, she's using it to bolster her run for governor in 2006, and indeed she is currently the Democratic front-runner.

But when you look at the facts Cathy Cox should be ashamed. She has failed the voters of Georgia. She has ensured that our elections are subject to fraud; she has knowingly allowed software that violates certification standards to be used in elections. She has wasted huge amounts of taxpayer funds on an election system that is proven to be ineffective at best, a downright scam at worst. And she has hidden or lied about these problems, not only to the voters of Georgia, but also to the state legislature.

A Trail of Amendments

In May of 2002 the state signed a contract with Diebold to provide DRE (Direct Record Electronic) voting machines for the entire state at a cost of $54 million. In July of the same year the first amendment to that contract was signed. It stated that:

* Diebold is to redesign the pre-election training for Georgia officials.

* Diebold is to create and prepare all election ballots for every county in Georgia.

* Diebold is to deliver and install the election database and memory card in every county on or before October 25, 2002.

Immediately, we can see that elections in Georgia have been entirely turned over to a private corporation, one with strong ties to the Republican Party. But it really gets interesting when we turn to later amendments. Contract amendments that were signed by Cathy Cox without any legislative oversight.

More:
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_790.shtml

[Stevepol]

1. Great find Amaryllis. It really details the fraud and cost in GA. K&R!

How long will it take for people to catch on to what a scam and con game these voting theft machines are?

[Peace Patriot]

2. Follow the money--totally mind-boggling....

The rest of this article tells the story of an election system so corrupt, it is almost beyond belief--except that we know it isn't unique. Ohio is equally, if not more, dirty. Ohio elections are run by a Republican; Georgia's by a Democrat, and there is little difference between, as to the complete corruption of our voting system. And the excesses of corruption and secrecy--and of a private Bushite voting machine company OWNING the entire state voting process--are present in varying degrees in ALMOST EVERY STATE IN THE UNION.

Tom Delay (indicted for corruption), Bob ("Abramoff scandal") Ney, and Christopher Dodd (I hope he's next)--the three archietcts of the "Hack America's Vote Act" of 2002--did their work of DESTROYING America's election system well. We don't have elections any more. What we have is tyranny.

Here is some of what this article reveals about the "Help America Vote for Bush Act" in Georgia:

--massive failures of the Diebold voting machines during elections; Sec of State Cathy Cox covered this up, and meanwhile appeared in Diebold promotional videos and sales brochures.

--Wyle Labs, a privately owned business, secretly "tests" Diebold software; the public never sees the results: Cost to Georgia voters: TEN MILLION DOLLARS!

--the Diebold machines still uncertified, but a ONE MILLION DOLLAR payment is forked over by the state anyway.

--Georgia buys three more Diebold GEMS servers at a cost of $51,459--still not been certified--and an additional $23,700 for Kennesaw State testing labs.

--a "Security Adjustment" for "software glitches," is not to be completed until after the November 2005 election.

--Georgia buys additional 955 AccuVote machines from Diebold costing $2.6 million dollars, and extends the state warranty with Diebold at a cost of $1.5 million.

--"No one in the Georgia legislature knew about any of these (expenditures)....There was no legislative oversight whatsoever."

--delays and lack of implementation of a voter verified paper ballot; extra cost to the state; still no paper ballot almost everywhere.

--real cost to the people of George for this crapass election theft machinery: over $116 million dollars, with NO legislative oversight.

The article concludes: "Who does Cathy Cox work for? The citizens of Georgia or the shareholders of Diebold? I personally think the answer is quite obvious."

-----------------

This is something DUers really need to get through our heads: The non-transparency and unverifiability of our election system--and the corruption at work--does not just involve Republicans and Bushites. We learned this to our great grief in California, when the state Democratic leadership helped engineer the "swiftboating" of our honest Sec of State Kevin Shelley--one of the few honest Secs of State in the country. Shelley sued Diebold, and decertified the worst of their election theft machines, prior to the 2004 election, and was then "swiftboated" out of office on completely bogus corruption charges--to be replaced by a terrible Schwarzegger appointee, who is a Diebold shill--while the Democratic leadership hid under their desks, or helped push Shelley out, and usher the Diebold shill in! The Democrats have 2 to 1 majorities in both houses--they could have stopped this. It was truly shocking--and a great learning experience. My feeling is that corruption on electronics in government must surely be behind it. It's hard to believe that even corrupt Democrats WANT elections to be "tabulated" by Bushites behind a veil of secrecy. Some may have made deals with the devil. Most, I think, are guilty of peripheral corruption, or are fearful.

This Democratic Patry collusion with Bushite secret vote counting goes back to 2002, at which time ALL but two Democratic U.S. Senators VOTED to destroy our right to vote (voted in favor of HAVA, a truly terrible piece of legislature that they should have burned down Washington DC to prevent). The two? Get ready for a surprise: Hillary Clinton--and Charles Schumer. Hillary! 63 House members voted against HAVA. And a shitload of House Democrats voted for it--including some of the best.

And you can't tell me they didn't know what they were doing. I'm sorry. I don't buy it.

Chief villain among the Democrats: Sen. Christopher Dodd. But they are all responsible.

And here's the least of what the Democratic Party owes us--the grass roots workers in the Democratic Party--and owes the American people: Funding of INDEPENDENT EXIT POLLS in all the Congressional elections this year. The war profiteering corporate news monopoly exit polls are not to be trusted. Honest exit polls (exit polls that are NOT mixed with non-transparent "official results") are the best means of verifying elections and checking for fraud. They are used worldwide for this purpose.

How about it, Dr. Dean? INDEPENDENT EXIT POLLS!

:think:

[kster]

3. K&R. nt

[Peace Patriot]

4. See Amarylls' other great post today, "The Women of Diebold":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x427376

And for those who need the info...

SOME RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496
Seven of these counties just promised the judge they would use PAPER BALLOTS, and were dismissed from this lawsuit (4/27/06).
http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2249205

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
(FLA AG subpoenas the companies)
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110192,00.html
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html
(info & discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

-----

More resources for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)


(Activist sites with links to state activist groups or info)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.votersunited.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)

www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)
Provisions of the PA lawsuit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423739

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Congressional bills:

Russ Holt's HR 550 requires a real paper ballot, bans secret software in "voting machines", and has more than 170 co-sponsors, but the audit required is too weak, it promotes electronic voting and centralized power, and the secret software might be permitted to continue in the central tabulators (the bill is not clear). To sign the HR 550 petition: http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967
(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)


Also of interest:

Michael Collins (Autorank)'s searing election reform article for New Zealand's Scoop.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x971363

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy! Title: "Poll Shock" 11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Bob Koehler's latest: "Trust us: Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm
More Koehler:
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

HOWARD DEAN remarks on electronic voting machines 04/06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x994507

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Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

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"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

[nicknameless]

5. .

K/R