BBV - Diebold Wines and Dines Elections Officials

[harmonyguy]

At a time when there is much controversy over electronic voting and some election experts are raising concerns about the integrity of such voting, should the leading manufacturers of electronic voting machines be wining and dining state and local officials responsible for conducting elections? Well, they are.

(big snip)
(referring to the Election Center's description of themselves.....)"As the public's guardians of freedom within a democratic society, we are responsible for the integrity of the process."

To maintain that integrity and to promote public confidence, they should not accept gifts from the controversial manufacturers of controversial voting machines. That seems a no-brainer.

But by accepting support from Diebold, Sequoia, and ES&S, these elections officials do little to encourage confidence in their judgment and impartiality. A cynic would not be unjustified to ask, if they cannot be trusted to make this call, how can they be trusted to count the votes?

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=1708

[loudsue]

1. This is SOOO freaking outrageous!!!

And so transparent! Yet, will we be hearing about this...in all its complexity, on the 6:00 news? Not one word. This is criminal, the intent is criminal, it shows conflict of interest written all over it.

We needed at least two million protesters at this little ho-down, calling it what it is, instead of at the repuke convention. THIS CONFERENCE is where the country is being sold down the river!!! And it symbolizes everything that is going WRONG: corporations taking away our basic rights!

Thanks for posting this...I wish the media would: it just gets me madder than a wet hornet.

:kick::kick::kick:

[Andy_Stephenson]

2. It takes a lot of grease to grease...

to grease a lot of palms.

[Vickers]

3. Good info

:kick:

[BevHarris]

4. The Electon Center is assigned a "vendor number" in Diebold's financials

On June 1, 2004, for example, Diebold lists an amount of $2,498.44 with an invoice describing "sponsorship", payable to The Election Center.

They also paid $500 to the National Association of Secretaries of State on the same date.

But these aren't the main course, folks. Much bigger payments are going out, to pass-through corporations who have already been exposed for doing nothing while passing funds through to politicians. Some of these are big Dem supporters, by the way. If we want Dems to be the good guys, they had BETTER get on the good side of this issue, and they've been waaaaay too slow to do so. I'm waiting with foot tapping.

By the way, we just put up a 4-part consumer report series on our new web site (http://www.blackboxvoting.org), and in Part 2, scroll down to the red headline "when and how did this get into the GEMS program" or something like that.

You'll see just how excellent Andy Stephenson's research is when you read that.

It isn't about stupidity. It isn't about political pranks and games. This is about crooks, as we've been saying all along.

Bev