LTTE from Diebold's Mike Jacobsen in today's Chicago Sun-Times

[XNASA]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/letters/cst-edt-vox09ax.html

(Fourth letter from the top of the page.)

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

In Diebold's defense

In regards to the Jesse Jackson column <"Something's fishy in Ohio," Nov. 30>, we want to clarify the reality of our company's role in the election in Ohio. For your information, Diebold had systems in only two counties in Ohio on Election Day-- Lucas (Toledo area, which went to Sen. John Kerry by a wide margin) and Hardin (a very small jurisdiction in northwest Ohio). Both used paper-based optical scan systems. The system in Franklin County Jackson refers to was provided by another company. Elsewhere in the country, our touchscreen systems were used predominantly, and with very positive feedback, in Georgia, Maryland, California, Texas and Kansas. None of which were swing states in the presidential election.

Also, as of June 2, Diebold's board of directors authorized a change to the company's corporate ethics policy to address the importance of the issue of political bias in regards to the company's election systems subsidiary. In recognition of the necessity for strict neutrality concerning political candidates and issues, the chief executive officer, president, and chief financial officer of Diebold Inc. and those Diebold Inc. executives identified by the company as responsible for the oversight of its election systems companies, as well as all employees of those companies, may not make contributions to, directly or indirectly, any political candidate, party, election issue or cause, or participate in any political activities, except for voting.

Mike Jacobsen, director,
Global Communications
Diebold, Incorporated

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

Is this true? Were Diebold machines only used in 2 Ohio counties??

[Pacifist Patriot]

1. Interesting press release from Diebold dated January 2004

http://www.diebold.com/news/newsdisp.asp?id=3041

[XNASA]

3. Thought so.

My question was more of the rhetorical type.

Why would he say that their machines were only used in two counties if they were used in over half?

You don't think that they're hiding something, do you??

[ReneB]

4. so, where they used at 2 counties in ohio only? is that true? n/t

[Razorback_Democrat]

7. Damned Interesting Press Release!!!!!! Kick

http://www.diebold.com/news/newsdisp.asp?id=3041

put it here too!

Diebold lying now?

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. My response to the newspaper

Mr. Jacobsen, director, Global Communications Diebold, Incorporated would be well served to review his company's website. According to a press release dated January 13, 2004, they proudly announced that nineteen additional Ohio counties had selected diebold election systems. "Thirty-five Ohio counties have now selected Diebold Election Systems as their preferred supplier for voting equipment and services." If I am doing the arithmetic correctly, even if the additional nineteen counties were not installed prior to November 2, 2004, that leaves sixteen counties with Diebold equipment rather than only two.

[Ms. Toad]

13. The installation of new voting machines was delayed in Ohio

Until after the November election. Only the two counties that had previously installed Diebold systems use Diebold machines this election. The rest of us (for the most part) used punch card. In my county, one of the ones announced as a Diebold county, I voted on punch cards.

The January press releases don't reflect the later decisions by Ohio that kept the old machines in place.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/03/08/vote.html

[Pacifist Patriot]

20. Oops, now don't I feel like an idiot.

[life_long_dem]

29. If they print it, maybe diebold wont respond and that's good.

[Pacifist Patriot]

33. I sent the paper a retraction.

[Zan_of_Texas]

31. You can thank C.A.S.E. for blocking Blackwell and

the wholesale introduction of paperless electronic voting machines in Ohio -- at least, that's my understanding (Ohioans - correct me if I'm wrong).

Those damn DREs were gonna march right into Ohio for this election, and I can guarantee you if they had, the recount situation would be looking MIGHTY DIFFERENT in Ohio right now -- there would be NO meaningful recount. You could still check numbers, like if you had a 120% turnout or whatever, and recount the paper absentees, but not much beyond that.

I'm thinking certain people (not naming any names but some call him Karl) thought they could sew up Ohio with those machines. When they stalled out after a huge dustup, then that's when they had to bring in what was called yesterday "old-fashioned thuggery." Yep, Ohio was subjected to voter suppression, shorting of voting machines, and it looks like some low-tech punchcard switcheroos, instead of clean, simple electronic theft with no trace.

As for Jacobsen's letter about political contributions by Diebold, one of the BIG contributors associated with Diebold, long-time board member Timken, won't be affected by the oh-so-tight rules against contributing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since 1991 the Timken Company and members of the Timken family have contributed more than a million dollars to the Republican Party and to GOP presidential candidates such as George W. Bush. --"Diebold's Political Machine," Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, Mother Jones March/April 2004 Issue
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pioneer and Ranger Contributions
1999 - 2003
at Open Secrets.org http://www.capitaleye.org/PRchart.1.14.04.asp

to George W. Bush

Number 31. William W. R. Timken Jr. Timken Ohio $330,292

[hootinholler]

38. Lovely...

Sets up plausible deniability when the election is grabbed: "We all know that Fla 2K proved the problems with punch card ballots" ...

[Vidar]

40. Nice research.

[november3rd]

2. they know something

they are saying, in other words, "It's not me!"

[Alizaryn]

5. What about ESS machines?

[Woo]

6. Not gonna buy it...

Does it really matter that Diebold machines were only in two counties in Ohio?

Mr. Jacobsen conveniently left out that one of the other large voting machine companies is owned by the Diebold's chief executives brother -- I think it's Sequioa(please correct if wrong)

From what I've read all these companies seem to be connected in some fashion...

Diebold just gets the brunt of the bad press because someone was stupid enough to let the contents of a clearly partisan email leak out.

[lthuedk]

9. They both use Windows based, hackable systems.

[lonestarnot]

27. YES, brother owns other machines, at least someone knew this.

[Stevepol]

32. ES&S and Diebold elections division are headed by brothers,

The Urosevich brothers I believe. In my estimation ES&S machines are responsible for even more fraud than Diebold. Sequoia is hand in glove w/ the others and the Triad people are evidently deep in the mire as well. The only machine companies that are trustworthy are the ones like Avante that have a built-in printer for voter-verified ballots to be printed for audits and recounts. That is obvious to anybody who approaches the question even a pssing nod toward reason.

[pick_a_dilly]

8. are the tabulators used in OH not LieBold machines???

are these 'tabulator' machines and the SW used upon them the bigger issue??

[Ms. Toad]

14. Only the two Diebold counties

The machines work with the tabulators so it's pretty difficult, without major reprogramming, to use voting machines from one manufacturer with a tabulator from another.

[newyawker99]

36. Hi pick_a_dilly!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[skids]

10. Funny that he should mention that.

Keep your ears peeled for some interesting stuff about Lucas, and
possibly Hardin.

[Wordie]

12. Don't miss the part about political activities!!! WE did that!!!

<snip>
Also, as of June 2, Diebold's board of directors authorized a change to the company's corporate ethics policy to address the importance of the issue of political bias in regards to the company's election systems subsidiary. In recognition of the necessity for strict neutrality concerning political candidates and issues, the chief executive officer, president, and chief financial officer of Diebold Inc. and those Diebold Inc. executives identified by the company as responsible for the oversight of its election systems companies, as well as all employees of those companies, may not make contributions to, directly or indirectly, any political candidate, party, election issue or cause, or participate in any political activities, except for voting.
<unsnip>

They say this was done on June 2. When was it that the comment was made by one of the Diebold execs re: helping Bush in the election?

[Quakerfriend]

15. CEO of Diebold

wrote that he "was firmly committed to delivering OHs electoral votes" to Bush in the 2004 election. This was in a letter written last summer as part of a fund raiser. Diebold CEO was a Pioneer or Ranger for BushCo. ie, big time donor. Can you believe the arrogance of these people?!

Hey Skids, you know something we don't know? A little tid bit of inside info, maybe?

[joeunderdog]

21. By June 2, they'd probably given the max. The fix was already in.

It's like no longer robbing the bank after the money's gone.

[rainbow4321]

16. Like we didn't know Texas and Calif weren't swing states...

"None of which were swing states in the presidential election."

No shit, Sherlock.. but the machines were used in the NON swing states to PAD the number of overall votes for chimp so he could use the word "mandate"..and there were a couple of other offices in Texas that the repukes needed to win <Delay and Sessions>.

[CantGetFooledAgain]

17. So, is there a county-by-county breakdown...

...of what technologies were in use in Ohio?

[tandem5]

18. wow that's um not the kind of statement you would expect...

I was thinking they would say "our machines are super-duper", not "well we didn't have very many machines in Ohio so don't blame us."

[Straight Shooter]

19. Is there someone willing to look up donation timeline prior to June 2?

What a weird letter. It's just begging to be shredded to pieces.

[buzzard]

22. What do you mean by donation timeline?

[Straight Shooter]

25. How much they gave and when they gave it

I guess I should have used the word "contribution." Thanks.

[roseBudd]

23. Triad Governmental Systems punch card vote tabulators are the ones

to investigate.


Xenia, OH, family co. also donates to GOP.

Daughter Cheryl Bellucci posted questions on a Visual Fox Pro forum.

ES&S provided the other OH counties punch card tabulators.

[AnIndependentTexan]

24. Important read - O'Dell re-election effort of Bush

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0828-08.htm

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."

The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.

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.

The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the 2004 election.

Blackwell's announcement is still in limbo because of a court challenge over the fairness of the selection process by a disqualified bidder, Sequoia Voting Systems.

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.

[lonestarnot]

26. His brother owns the other vote machines used?

[JunkYardDogg]

28. The Ursevich Brothers

One is a VP at Diebold
The other is a Ceo or Pres at E S & S
ES & S was started with seed money in 1986 from Howard Ahmanson, a
former Board member of the Chalcedon Foundation, a Christian Reconstructionist group- they would be considered wacko , belief in the death penalty for almost everything counter to their beliefs, but Ahmanson inherited mega millions, and Christian Reconstructionism is at the Heart of the NeoCon/Diminionist Movement
see the Yurica Report at:

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

[lonestarnot]

34. I have been reading re the movement for some time...

Started long ago, American's asleep at the wheel.

[JunkYardDogg]

30. Here's The Record Of Diebold Contributions

Here are sites with lists of Diebold's Contributions and Corporate Officers:


http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/index.php?showtopic=2399&st=20

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...2632349#2645691



http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=dbd

http://aittimes.mithuro.com/diecntr.html

http://ojingo.beerdrinker.org/index.php?p=140&c=1

http://www.bartcop.com/diebold.htm


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2632349#2645691

[Ellipsis]

35. Pioneers and Rangers list

check this out

http://www.tpj.org/pioneers/pioneers04/who_state.html

k

[newyawker99]

37. Hi btmlndfrmr!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Ellipsis]

39. thank you and

long time listener first time caller.

I just checked out the guys from my state on this list.

In the metaphor of puppets, Klauser was oft times referred to as the hand up Tommy's ass.


k