Diebolding North Carolina

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

Guy who worked for Diebold from 2002-2005 is overseeing the voting machine purchase process in North Carolina.

He is the one who Diebolded Georgia in 2002 and also Maryland.


Possible conflict of interest with the
State's Request for Proposal for Voting Machines in North Carolina -

The Diebold Advantage in North Carolina's voting machine selection process:

The Project manager for North Carolina's RFP process(Keith Long) also is/was a senior employee of Diebold
from 2002-2005.

Diebold is already gaining advantage over other vendors in other ways -
Diebold has been given permission by the courts to submit their proposal on Monday, 11-7
which is 3 days after the deadline for all other vendors.

Mr. Keith Long oversaw the installation of 22,000 Diebold voting machines in Georgia and
5,000 in Maryland.


One might wonder if Diebold has unfair advantages over other vendors in North Carolina.

North Carolina's Request for Proposal Guidelines here:
http://www.ips.state.nc.us/ips/AGENCY/PDF/04454100.pdf

_______________________________________________________________

The State selected Keith Long to be the Project Manager overseeing the RFP Process:

The State Board of Elections issued a statement of work through the Information Technology Services Supplemental Staffing Convenience Contract (STF-002619) for the purpose of selecting a project manager for the State's selection of voting equipment pursuant to the passage of SB 223. Mr. Keith Long of Beachwood Computing, LTD., was selected from over 20 applicants responding to the public posting. State Board staff and ITS staff were in agreement that Mr. Long was the candidate most qualified to provide the services described in the statement of work.
Bob Rauf
IT Director
North Carolina State Board of Elections
' 919-715-1651
, [e-mail]
_________________________________________________

Resume for Keith Long, who is the project manager overseeing NC's
Request for Proposal (requirements that voting machine companies have to meet)

Excerpt of Mr. Long's resume:

Diebold Election Systems, Inc. McKinney, TX
Senior Project Manager 2002 to 2005

Directed a 60 million dollar project to successfully install 22,000 electronic voting machines in the State of Georgia on time and under budget.

Project lead to install 5,000 electronic voting machines in the State of Maryland.

Supervised the installation of a new Voter Registration System in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Ohio.

Planned and directed the statewide election results upload to the Georgia Secretary of State website.

Managed the design and testing of new optical scan voting system.
*rest of resume here: http://pmpplus.com/
_______________________________________________________________

November 4, 2005 vendors must have their proposals turned in.
_______________________________________________________________

Diebold asks for and gets permission to turn in their proposal 3 days after deadline for other
vendors:

November 4, 2005 at 1:45PM, Diebold requested and obtained a temporary restraining order
against the SBOE and the NC Office of Information and Technology Services.

The restraining order extended the deadline for submission of sealed bids to Diebold until 12:30 PM on Monday, November 7, 2005.
__________________________________________________

[Benhurst]

1. This is so pathetic. In 2004, one of my friends

voting in the Republican primary could not get his selection for a judge to register, the machine kept switching his vote to another candidate. After twenty minutes with poll workers, his vote finally registered on the screen, but who knows what happened inside the machine. And who knows how many other voters had the same problem but didn't realize what was happening.

In the general election, my vote was switched to Republican Congressman Charles Taylor as I closed out my machine.

Vote switching is not a glitch. Computers must be programed to switch votes.

I'm voting tomorrow because I promised a neighbor I'd vote for him; but I have absolutely no confidence in my vote being counted.

Thoroughly disgusted in Western North Carolina.