My name is John Dean, from Santa Ana, California.
On behalf of blackboxvoting.org, I’m proud to bring you the following.
The Diebold Persuasion Machine
By Black Box Voting staffers, with the assistance of citizen volunteers including John Dean, Linda Franz, John Howard and Catherine Ansbro (with a tip of the hat to Brad Friedman).
Permission granted to quote or reprint, with link to http://www.blackboxvoting.org.
INTRODUCTION
This is an investigative report about money and persuasion. It’s a report pertaining to public money spent on vulnerable voting machines, money which indirectly bankrolls a large lobbying and public relations machine designed to persuade taxpayers to accept voting machine purchases.
At the same time, employees of one vendor are engaging in activities to disrupt and discredit those who question the wisdom of purchasing these machines.
The public money used to purchase these machines belongs to you, the taxpayer. You control it. You are picking up the tab for voting machine vendors who ultimately control your elections through the software, hardware and “updates” they provide, through their technicians, and through their election management services. Thus, the truthfulness, business practices, and ethics of these voting machine vendors are very much your concern.
After reading about security vulnerabilities(1) built into Diebold voting machines, you may be wondering how your tax dollars manage to keep buying them. In fact, taxpayer money helps underwrite not just the machines, but the vendor’s attorneys who fight lawsuits filed by citizen groups.(2) Your money indirectly underwrites party boats and luncheons and open bars that curry favor with elections officials,(3) along with the salaries of employees who engage in deceptive practices to discredit critics.
You pay for it all.
The Persuaders Who Are Publicly Disclosed
Diebold Election Systems, one of the largest voting machine vendors in the US,(4) spends millions on PR and lobbying efforts, employing both in-house and outside personnel. Some of Diebold’s PR activities fall under the category of “Governmental Relations” (lobbying). Diebold’s elections division also employs an outside crisis management team, a corporate media specialist, and as you will see later in this report, certain Diebold employees engage in PR activities that are morally, ethically and legally questionable.
Two of Diebold’s crisis management experts (David Bear and Marvin Singleton) are employed by powerful and politically connected Texas-based Public Strategies Inc. According to check stubs obtained by Black Box Voting, Diebold has paid as much as $145,210 to Public Strategies in a single month.
Picture of June 1-29, 2004 Public Strategies Inc. invoices paid by Diebold Election Systems:http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Diebold also employs Mark Radke, an unflappable media relations expert who skillfully frames the issues with reporters to favor Diebold’s point of view.
(Picture of Mark Radke): :http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
(Video of Mark Radke at work):
:http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Dix & Eaton is a PR firm in Cleveland that shows up in the midst of a $100,000 “unidentified security expense” in Diebold’s general ledger listing.
(Picture of Dix & Eaton general ledger entries):
:http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
The account number for the unidentified $100,000 gives a connection to Dix & Eaton
Diebold “Governmental Relations” Experts
It’s no surprise that a company the size of Diebold has many governmental relations experts. Who are some of Diebold’s lobbyists?
– Greenberg-Traurig, the firm associated with convicted power-lobbyist Jack Abramoff (2 felony counts), has done work for Diebold.
(Picture of Greenberg-Traurig check stub from Diebold)
:http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
– Darrell W. Hunt, investigated by the FBI in connection with a bribery scandal in Louisiana, “works the halls” for Diebold(5):
Link to bribery scandal story:http://www.bbvforums.org/…
Photo of internal memo from Diebold about Hunt: http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Link to documents showing Hunt worked for Diebold:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
– Gilbert Genn, a lobbyist paid by Diebold, also worked for Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) while the SAIC was commissioned to evaluate Diebold’s product.(6)
Picture of Disbursement to Gilbert Genn from Diebold Election Systems General Ledger:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
– Rose & Kindel’s senior communications manager, Adan Ortega Jr., received an appointment with Calif. Secretary of State Bruce McPherson’s new administration. Hiring an executive from Diebold’s lobbying firm raised eyebrows among election integrity groups because it was an apparent conflict of interest. At the time, the Secretary of State was in the process of deciding whether to certify Diebold machines. Other concerns have been raised about the accuracy and truthfulness of reported Diebold payments to Rose & Kindel. California law requires reporting of how much lobbyists are paid by their clients. There is a discrepancy in what was reported to the state (April-June, 2004 only $7,526 was reported) — yet check stubs obtained by Black Box Voting reveal actual payments for May and June alone totaled $45,248.
Picture of Rose & Kindel check stub from Diebold — This is six times as large as Diebold reported in required lobbying disclosure forms:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Link to more on Rose & Kindel: http://www.bbvforums.org/…
– According to disclosure forms, Diebold Election Systems’ Ohio lobbyists simultaneously acted as lobbyists for the Ohio Association of Elections Officials:
Picture of lobbyist information from Ohio:
diebold-disinfo/lobbyists1.JPG
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
In 2005, the same “State Street” lobbyists are representing Diebold voting machines and Ohio elections officials.
Here is the Ohio Lobbyist list for 2005: http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Ohio is an important state. It’s not really surprising that Diebold would have 5 lobbyists representing their interests, although it is surprising that, at the same time, some of these same lobbyists would also be representing the interests of the Ohio Association of Election Officials, whose members are the very customers to whom Diebold sells.
– Diebold’s financial documents show hundreds of thousands of dollars in “success fees.” The term generally refers to contingent “pay to play” fees and therefore “success fees” are frowned on (or illegal) in the lobbying business. Paul Tipps, Diebold’s former Ohio lobbyist, became so disgusted with governmental “pay to play” that he left his lobbying firm to form an organization to clean up government.
Link to story about Ohio “pay to Play”: http://www.bayoubuzz.com/…
Many states prohibit contingent fee lobbying, the usual connotation of “success fee.”
Picture of Diebold Election Systems general ledger showing “success fees”:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
(click here for full general ledger page)
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
The Undercover Persuaders
Clandestine attack campaigns are real. They can divide us and dilute our power as a united citizenry with a common goal.
Lobbyists and Public Relations practitioners are usually identified so that the public and the people being lobbied know the interests whom they represent.
Not so on the internet, where people with a vested interest sometimes hide behind a shield of assumed anonymity to conduct attacks against the targets of their choosing – for example, those who oppose their business interests.
Such is the case with at least one high level employee of Diebold Election Systems who has been using false identities to engage in aggressively distributed internet attacks targeting those who expose weaknesses in electronic voting systems. The disinformation spread through the Internet is vicious, and considerable effort has been taken to hide its origin.
At best, using a sham identity to conduct such practices may tread into the area of false advertising. At worst, it can be deemed a criminal offense. Under U.S. Code Title 47, Chapter 5 Subchapter II Part I § 223, utilizing a telecommunications device without disclosing identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass is prohibited, and this definition does include use of the Internet.
Link to this law: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/…
Meet the cyberguys: “Wally O’Diebold”, “Jean-Claude Van Camme” and “therealrobp”
picture of Diebold’s “therealrobp” who administers “Blackboxwatchdog.com,” a Web site which specializes in skillfully written disinformation, attacking anyone who gets in the way of Diebold’s business interests:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Let’s have a look at the headline that appeared on the deceptive “Blackboxwatchdog ” Web site for 11 months, attacking the credibility of a specific reporter:
Picture of headline:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Ian Hoffman is an Oakland Tribune newspaper reporter who was one of the first mainstream news reporters to report flaws in Diebold voting systems. He published internal documents from Diebold’s law firm, Jones Day, in which lawyers were advising Diebold that continuing to deliver uncertified equipment could result in criminal charges. In the documents, Jones Day proposed a budget for Diebold’s criminal defense. A lawsuit over Hoffman’s publication of the Jones Day documents followed; when that did not succeed, a Web site was set up attacking Hoffman’s credibility.*
Although accusations against Hoffman remained on the website for 11 months, this was not the first attack to originate from the site. On May 26, 2005 in Leon County Florida, Black Box Voting sponsored a demonstration of some of the security vulnerabilities of a Diebold optical scan voting machine. The demonstration itself was conducted by Harri Hursti, a Finnish computer security expert.(7) Within hours of the demonstration, Blackboxwatchdog was launched, and a few days later the site promised to debunk Hursti’s report about Leon County.
The Blackboxwatchdog site posts general disinformation like this:
“Black Box Voting — an organization now thought by many to be fraudulent.”
(referring to the most recent Black Box Voting/Hursti report):
“OK, I plagiarized this too. So sue me.
The site began by hurling general accusations at election integrity activists, then posted the anti-Ian Hoffman story. The Hoffman attack was replaced by a new story, once again attacking security expert Harri Hursti, this time alleging that Hursti and employees of Black Box Voting (naming Kathleen Wynne, Bev Harris, Jim March) were soon to be arrested for felony vote-tampering.
Hursti had written two critical security alerts pertaining to Diebold voting systems, both of which have received strong support from the U.S. scientific community. His work has been reported by the Associated Press, Newsweek, the New York Times and the Washington Post and has resulted in negative media stories for Diebold Election Systems.
In addition, Blackboxwatchdog attacks the organization that sponsored Hursti’s studies, though these efforts consist primarily of ridiculing its founder, Bev Harris, with sarcastic statements like this:
“Ms. Harris rarely seems to do anything more significant than go to the bathroom without documenting her self-professed heroics on videotape.”
Hoffman, Hursti, Harris and Black Box Voting are not the only ones to feel the wrath of Blackboxwatchdog. The site lobs unfounded accusations of bogus financial misdeeds at Joan Krawitz, co-founder of Vote Trust USA (http://www.VoteTrustUSA.org).
Utah election reform advocate Kathy Dopp (http://www.utahcountvotes.org) is belittled by an editor for the site who conceals his real name, calling himself “zerocool” (a pseudonym taken from the movie “hackers”). Blackboxwatchdog also levels criticisms against products made by two of Diebold’s competitors, Sequoia Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software.
Attorneys who have dared to go up against Diebold are also subjected to Blackboxwatchdog attacks. Lowell Finley is currently suing to remove Diebold TSx touch-screens from our elections process with a groupThe site tries to he co-founded, http://www.VoterAction.org. drag elections attorney Lowell Finley through the mud, dropping made-up hints of improprieties in his handling of funds for a client.
Considerable effort appears to have been taken to hide the origin of the Blackboxwatchdog Web site. Blackboxwatchdog displays the following banner:
Picture of banner claiming that the site has nothing to do with any vendor:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
This statement is false. Volunteer citizen researchers at Black Box Voting uncovered the following information tying the site to a Diebold employee who has been hiding behind various false identities.
“Jean-Claude Van Camme”
The current registration data for any web site can be reviewed through what is called a WHOIS search. A WHOIS search returns the name and address of the registrant, along with the required contact information. In addition, there are services available which provide the history of changes of WHOIS registrant information. (If you are unfamiliar with WHOIS searching, a check of your favorite search engine will help).
WHOIS registration information for Blackboxwatchdog.com:
Registrant:
Jean-Claude Van Camme
77 E Main St
Tucker, Georgia 30085
United States
(917) 210-6543
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: BLACKBOXWATCHDOG.COM
Created on: 27-May-05
Expires on: 27-May-07
Last Updated on: 27-May-05
The address given is nonexistent; the phone number is a New York City-based cell phone account which, although it appears to be live, on numerous occasions has never been answered nor does it have voicemail.
As it turns out, “Jean-Claude Van Camme” owns another Web site: http://www.camlives.com
Jean-Claude Van Camme
4426 Hugh Howell Rd Ste B
Tucker, Georgia 30084
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: CAMLIVES.COM
Created on: 17-Feb-02
Expires on: 17-Feb-07
Last Updated on: 18-Mar-04
2063396085
Reader discretion is advised – the camlives.com site contains adult-oriented material. Although the address in Tucker Georgia is different, which might suggest that someone else was using the same name, a check of the registrant information change history shows that until mid-May 2006 the address used was 77 E. Main Street, Tucker Georgia, precisely the same as Blackboxwatchdog.com. The new address is actually a commercial mailbox service, and the phone number is a portable phone that goes to a messaging center.
An internet search for Jean-Claude Van Camme returns the following link:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/…
This link shows an apparent dispute between a representative of an internet hosting service, and an individual using the name “therealrobp” who signs himself “RobP,” in which the hosting company points out the misleading nature of the contact information for CAMLIVES.COM, the web site around which the dispute centers. In one message the hosting company chides RobP for registering the site with a false identity, “Jean-Claude Van Camme.” RobP identifies the site as being owned by his wife, and says that he is the administrator of the box.
In fact, there are numerous sites apparently owned or administered by RobP and his wife, a beach girl from North Carolina, most of which are teaser sites for a pay-per-click porn scheme.
abadteen.com
acamcouple.com
acamgirl.com
camlives.com
furiosity.com
It is the furiosity.com Web site that begins to lead us back to Diebold Election Systems. On furiosity, RobP reveals that he is a programmer who in April 2003 relocated to the Vancouver, BC area to take a job. [Vancouver happens to be where the Diebold Election Systems programmers office is located]. He continued to talk about himself until April 2004 when he explained that he has been too busy ‘…making the world safe for democracy…’ to update his diary.
Picture of saving democracy statement:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
RobP then claims, presumably in jest, that he’s been “working undercover for the government.” In this graphic from the furiosity site we get our first suggestion of RobP’s appearance.
Picture of “undercover for the government” statement:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
In his online profile at a site called LiveJournal.com, which he links to in his furiosity.com Web site, RobP describes himself as “an HTML ninja, a hotshot software guy and a spy.”
Picture of Jean-Claude, captured by own Webcam http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Although usually only seen from behind, on one of the websites with which he is connected Jean-Claude (RobP etc.) has a live webcam where you can view some of his activities.
Rob P. refers to his more unsavory work in one of his diaries:
“…But enough said about boring work stuff. Nobody really wants to hear about HTTP tunneling or snooping on the illicit activities of other people on your subnet.”
In one of his online diaries, RobP describes the car he drives and the one he purchased for his wife. His wife is originally from Wilmington, North Carolina. She writes about staying at the family “beach house” (Kure Beach, NC). She says in her blog that she moved to the Vancouver area after marrying Rob in October 2003.
Picture of RobP’s statement about his yellow Toyota Celica: http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Picture of RobP’s statement about his wife’s green Kia:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Both RobP and his wife provide abundant information about themselves, including photographs of their Vancouver area home. (With a green Kia out front)
Pictures of RobP/Jean-Claude Van Camme house:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
RobP also frequents the Diebold section of the Yahoo financial message board, where he’s been known to ridicule Diebold stockholders who are nervous about their position.
Picture of “therealrobp” statement ridiculing nervous stockholders
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
While “therealrobp” character on Yahoo, claims to be from Wilmington, NC rather than from the Vancouver area of BC, Wilmington was the home of his wife prior to her moving to BC.
He repeatedly attacks Black Box Voting and its founder, Bev Harris, engaging in a pattern of talking points and inaccurate statements trying to convince stockholders to ignore whatever they read if it comes from Black Box Voting.
Picture of promise to “crush her like a bug”
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
“Bev Harris says a lot of crazy-ass nonsense. That’s why she’s been thoroughly discredited…”
“…conspiracy nutcases like Bev Harris and ultra-leftwing blogger web sites.”
“Of course all the same information is available just by reading any of Ms. Harris’ crazy ramblings.”
“This crazy old woman and the organization she runs have exactly zero credibility. It boggles the mind that people believe her mindless drivel…”
“On the other had, I also totally know that the board of directors is made up entirely of friends and family of Ms. Harris…
But does Rob P work for Diebold?
A check of a Diebold staff list identifies only two employees whose name is Rob or Robert and whose surname begins with the letter ‘P’ – a Rob Pelletier whose location was unspecified, and a Robert Pickett located in North Carolina.
Picture of excerpt from Diebold staff list
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
While the North Carolina employee may be the most obvious possibility, the other name proved to be correct.
Like most major metropolitan areas in North America, Vancouver, British Columbia is made up numerous adjoining municipalities each of which bears its own name. While a city in its own right, Surrey, BC is part of the greater Vancouver area.
Black Box Voting volunteers located an address in Surrey, BC belonging to a Rob and [redacted wife’s name] Pelletier. Photographs of the house taken by Black Box Voting researchers bear an uncanny resemblance to the home shown in the photographs posted by RobP and his wife. Even the rocking chair on the porch is the same.
Pictures of Rob Pelletier house
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Outside the home, are two vehicles – a yellow Toyota Celica and a Green Kia, precisely as described by RobP in his blog.
Pictures of cars at Rob Pelletier’s house
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
The plate number of the Yellow Toyota Celica outside Rob Pelletier’s house is 722BJW:
Picture of license plate:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Could this be a different Rob Pelletier than Diebold’s Pelletier?
We know that Rob Pelletier from Surrey drives a yellow Toyota Celica but is THIS Rob Pelletier connected with Diebold?
The offices of Diebold Election Systems in Vancouver BC are located at Suite 350-1200 73rd Avenue West, in a 14 story-high building known as Airport Square. This building is equipped with both ground level and underground parking.
Link to info on Diebold address: http://www.1200-west-73rd.com
Picture of Vancouver White Pages entry for Diebold Election Systems:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Pictures of Airport Square: Front view & side view
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Pictures of parking garage for the Airport Square Building:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
Let’s go to the videotape:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/… (12-second video)
Watch as a yellow Toyota Celica drives into the garage at the Diebold election Systems Office and compare the plate number, 722BJW, with that of the vehicle outside the Surrey home of Rob Pelletier. An earlier phone call to the Diebold Election Systems office in Vancouver confirmed that Rob Pelletier does in fact work at that office.
What does Rob Pelletier do for Diebold?
He seems to have a key position which carries a high degree of trust. Here is Rob Pelletier (misspelled, as “Pelltier”) listed in a select group of the key Diebold people meeting with the Calif. Secretary of State’s staff in December:
Picture of nondisclosure for secret meeting with secretary of state’s office and Diebold personnel
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
In late 2005 Black Box Voting was invited by the California Secretary of State to demonstrate some security vulnerabilities of one of the Diebold voting systems. The Secretary of State’s office sent Black Box Voting an electronic document outlining the test protocols that would be allowed.
Picture of sec. state test protocols, (inset) hidden ‘properties’ show written by Rob Pelletier
http://www.bbvdocs.org/…
At Black Box Voting, we referred to the above “hack test” proposal as “the turkey shoot” – not just because it was served to us at Thanksgiving, but also based on the absurdity of the test protocols. Internal details of the electronic document revealed that it was written by none other than Rob Pelletier, and was then distributed to Black Box Voting by the California Secretary of State’s office.
Does anyone else from Diebold promote Blackboxwatchdog?
According to public records obtained by Black Box Voting from San Joaquin county, another key Diebold employee, Steve Knecht, has been e-mailing California elections registrars recommending Pelletier’s site without disclosing that the site belongs to a Diebold employee.
Email from Steve Knecht to San Joaquin County elections registrar:
“Why don’t you put this URL out on elecnet after you’ve had a chance to review the web site. If you agree, let all the other registrars know about it. It finally goes after the biased reporting of Ian Hoffman, and goes after Bev as well. Let’s start promoting this site as a voice of reason!!!! Steve
New website to counter black box voting:
http://blackboxwatchdog.com/…
And there are more: Wally O’Diebold
“Wally O’Diebold,” is another fake name Internet harasser who also happens to post from Surrey, BC. When “Wally O’Diebold” came to the popular “BradBlog” site, its owner Brad Friedman spotted the disinfo. Friedman writes:
“While he may be too cowardly to give his real name publicly – even while sliming folks like myself, Bev Harris, Jim March, Avi Rubin, Sen. Debra Bowen and others who are not afraid to put our real names on our work and behind our beliefs – he’s a Diebold insider with a lot of knowledge of the systems, and (WARNING) a lot of mis/disinformation he’s suddenly very eager to spread.”
Friedman supplied “Wally O’Diebold’s” IP address to Black Box Voting volunteers and they found that “Wally O’Diebold’s” IP address traces back to the Vancouver, BC area – Surrey, to be precise. The same suburb where we found Diebold’s Rob Pelletier.
More: See Bradblog archive – It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp; Diebold Gets Desperate, Sends a Pro to Work the Corner of BRAD Street…
Link to BradBlog article:http://www.bradblog.com/…
Whatever happened to Wally, anyway?
It seems that after his IP address in Surrey, BC was exposed on BradBlog, Wally quieted down (or at least changed his moniker; in a particularly creepy episode, a message promoting a new Blackboxwatchdog story appeared at DemocraticUnderground impersonating the name of Bev Harris’s children; another IP leading back to Blackboxwatchdog showed up at BradBlog pretending to be Catherine Ansbro, who helped to write this article).
It turns out that Wally O’Diebold has been roaming the Internet spreading disruption for at least a year and a half. When Black Box Voting compared the BradBlog Wally O’Diebold IP address with our own logs, we discovered that “Wally O’Diebold” spends a lot of time on our Web site.
His IP address – 24.86.46.74 – is the seventh most frequent IP visitor of all time at Black Box Voting.
Not all visits by Wally O’Diebold are benign. He is not shy about stealing the identities of others. An identity thief calling himself “The Real Pat Vesely” plagued the Black Box Voting web site with harassment posts for a while, imitating one of the writers who provides assistance to citizens in our consulting forum. The fake Pat Vesely’s IP was “24.86.46.74” – Wally O’Diebold.
A character who called himself “The Real Jim March” (at the time a Black Box Voting board member) also showed up to disrupt the site, as did a “JimsMarch” and a “Bev Harris” that was not the real Bev Harris.
“NC Beach Girl” on DemocraticUnderground forums once posted a series of three messages revealing the timing of several visits to Black Box Voting. Checking our IP logs for the same three time periods showed that only a half-dozen visitors had visited at coinciding times. The IP address that best matches the times of the “NC Beach Girl” posts is “24.86.46.74” – Wally O’Diebold.
“The Real Rob P” also has many names and co-distributors for his information. He visits slashdot under “omega_rob”; the DemocraticUnderground forums feature “NC Beach Girl” distributing information about Blackboxwatchdog.
These Internet troll messages are also distributed on the Yahoo financial message boards by a particularly vicious poster who goes by the name “lalaneytrue” (“the real Laney,” who is also signed up at one of Rob P’s sites). A “lalaneytrue” cybertrash message was, in turn, copied verbatim onto a heavily used programmers’ forum called “Fark.com” – this time, hijacking the identity of Linda Franz who was at that time president of the board of directors for Black Box Voting.
The distributors in this disinformation campaign are recognizable because they cut and paste from each other to swap talking points and copy them to multiple Internet sites under several different “screen names.”
Is any of this appropriate?
A Diebold employee under the persona of “Jean-Claude Van Camme” and other pseudonyms creates propaganda and spreads disruption around the Internet. When that same employee propagates disinformation to a financial message board frequented by stockholders, the question arises if such activities are appropriate – or legal – for a representative of a publicly held company
When a Diebold employee, Steve Knecht, recommends a deceptive Web site developed by another Diebold employee, Rob Pelletier, to public officials while they are involved in purchasing decisions, it’s time to look at whether false advertising and unfair business practice statutes apply.
When another Diebold employee, Knecht, asks a California public official to promote a deceptive web site using the private email list of the California counties election officials, Knecht exposes officials to embarrassment and potential repercussions. Knecht admits the site targets a newspaper reporter and the head of an elections-related nonprofit civil rights group. Propriety dictates that at the very least, he should have warned election officials – Diebold’s customer base – that the site was created and run by another Diebold employee.
Diebold is a company that already spends millions on advertising, PR, media relations and lobbying, indirectly paid for by taxpayer dollars. Those same dollars payroll certain employees engaged in Internet disinformation about activists, lawyers, and reporters.
As citizens, we have to ask: Don’t you think it’s time to bring back citizen oversight? If we allow this type of behavior to divide the election reform community, then perhaps we deserve what we get.
It’s up to you to decide. You’re paying for it.
Footnotes
(1) New York Times article
Salt Lake Tribune Article: http://www.sltrib.com/…
http://www.blackbovoting.org/…
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/…
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/…
(2) USA Today, June 4 2006, “Spate of Lawsuits Target e-Voting” — Lawsuits have been filed in at least six states, the most recent last week in Colorado, to block the purchase or use of computerized machines…
http://www.usatoday.com/…
(3) Party boats: http://www.votersunite.org/…
“Diebold Wines and Dines Elections Officials”: http://www.ejfi.org/…
“Guess Who’s Going to Hollywood?” http://www.votetrustusa.org/…
(4) The largest voting machine vendors are: Diebold Election Systems (statewide systems in Georgia, Maryland, Utah, and Mississippi and Alaska; widely used in California, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Washington, and Massachusetts; Diebold systems are used in at least 30 states and count approximately one-third of all votes in federal elections); Election Systems and Software (closely rivals Diebold in size; very heavily used in Indiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, has a presence in most states); Sequoia Voting Systems (heavily used in New Jersey, in areas with heavy Hispanic populations including Riverside, San Bernardino and Santa Clara Counties (Calif.), also used in Palm Beach and Pinellas Counties (Fla.), in Chicago/Cook County (Ill.) and throughout the state of Nevada. Sequoia machines dominate many areas where the gambling industry is heavily represented and also are used in many areas with high Hispanic voting populations. The fourth-largest vendor, Hart Intercivic, is widely used in Texas and has a presence in Orange County Calif,; Yakima and Skagit counties (Washington); Boulder County (CO) and a few other outposts.
(5) The New Orleans Times-Picayune, 23 July 2000: “A DIFFERENT KIND OF GATED COMMUNITY” and Saturday State Times/Morning Advocate, 29 April 2000: “Judge frees Bankston case figure”
(6) Washington Post, 28 Sept. 2003: Ehrlich Seeks Probe Over Ballot Machines; Contractor, Reviewer Used Same Lobbyist. “… Gilbert J. Genn, a former Montgomery County delegate, is registered as a lobbyist for Diebold Election Systems Inc., the company that has a $55 million contract to provide the state with its electronic voting system, and Science Applications International Corp., the computer security company the state recently hired to examine the Diebold voting machines for flaws.
A FOLLOW UP: A formal ethics probe was launched by the state of Maryland, and ultimately concluded there was no wrongdoing. Nevertheless, Maryland taxpayers had to foot the bill for the ethics probe, which was a response to the appearance of impropriety. Maryland did not learn that Genn represented parties on both sides until after the report was completed.
(7) From California Voting Systems Technology Assessment Advisory Board (VSTAAB):
“Harri Hursti’s attack does work: Mr. Hursti’s attack on the AV-OS is definitely real. He was indeed able to change the election results by doing nothing more than modifying the contents of a memory card. He needed no passwords, no cryptographic keys, and no access to any other part of the voting system, including the GEMS election management server.”
http://www.ss.ca.gov/…
*The alleged leaker of the Jones Day documents, Stephen Heller, has since received retaliation in the form of felony charges. To donate to Stephen Heller’s defense, please visit http://www.hellerlegaldefensefund.com.
More on Heller: http://www.bbvforums.org/…
Thank you for reading.
John
