E-Vote Firm Agrees to Pay State (CA-Diebold)

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-diebold11nov11,1,7222797.story

E-Vote Firm Agrees to Pay State
Diebold OKs settlement of $2.6 million for California and Alameda County. A suit accused the Texas company of misleading officials.
By Stuart Pfeifer
Times Staff Writer

November 11, 2004

Touch-screen voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems has agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the Texas-based company of misleading local and state officials in order to sell software and voting machines to several California counties.

A voters' rights advocate filed the lawsuit in Alameda County in November 2003, contending that Diebold made false statements about the security of the vote-tabulating equipment it sold to Alameda County.

Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer joined in the lawsuit in September and sought to recoup some of the millions of dollars in state money that was paid to Diebold for election systems and software. There were no reports that the equipment malfunctioned in November. Under terms of the settlement, which needs a judge's approval, $1.625 million would go to the state, $475,000 to Alameda County and $500,000 to a poll-worker training project at UC Berkeley.

Diebold also agreed to make improvements to the vote-tabulating equipment it sold to 17 California counties.

Diebold also could be required to pay the legal expenses of Bev Harris, who advocates accurate election systems through her website blackbox voting.org. Harris filed the lawsuit under a state law that allows the public to seek damages from companies that defraud the state. A judge will decide whether she should be awarded part of the settlement.

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1. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=977699