California settles electronic voting lawsuit against Diebold

[seemslikeadream]

SAN FRANCISCO California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has announced a two-point-six (m) million dollar settlement with Diebold (DEE-bohld) -- resolving a lawsuit alleging that the company sold shoddy voting equipment in the state.

...

Diebold also agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to partially reimburse Alameda, San Diego and other counties for the cost of paper backup ballots, ink and other supplies in last week's election.

California's secretary of state banned the use of one type of Diebold machine in May, after problems with the machines disenfranchised an unknown number of voters.
more
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=2549709

[molly]

1. More great news!

[AllyCat]

3. I don't think it's good at all...

...this means they settled for lots of cash and basically nothing gets fixed. I think they should have proceeded and nailed this stupid company to the wall.

[molly]

6. It means they know their machines are shit

[seemslikeadream]

2. Diebold said the settlement includes $500,000 to create a voter education

Associated Press
Diebold to Settle Calif. Suit for $2.6M
11.10.2004, 04:53 PM

Automated teller machine maker Diebold Inc. said Wednesday that it will pay the state of California $2.6 million to settle a lawsuit related to its electronic voting machines.

In September, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer joined a suit charging that Diebold sold the state inferior hardware and software that left the vote-count susceptible to hackers and software bugs. California's Alameda County also joined the lawsuit, which was filed last year by a computer programmer. The original suit claimed that the state spent at least $19 million on problem-ridden equipment.

Diebold said the settlement includes $500,000 to create a voter education and poll worker training program together with the University of California Institute of Governmental Studies. The company also agreed to certain technology and reporting standards that will give election officials a better understanding of how to use the election systems.

...

Diebold shares rose 63 cents, or 1.2 percent, to close at $53.19 on the New York Stock Exchange.

more
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2004/11/10/ap1648095.html

[TheDebbieDee]

8. Voter Education......sounds like blaming the voter for not being...

able to use their rigged up machines correctly.

[DeadManInc]

15. Diebold

Need to go to a stock site like yahoo, where it has message boards and start talking about voter fraud with their optic ballot scan machine. Maybe make their stock start to tank.

[belle]

4. You know what, I think Diebold needs to just be put out. of. commission.

But how?

[Scooter24]

13. A start-up-business

Someone who can find the capital and create a good business plan could do it.

Maybe DU should invest in development. Oh how would I love to see the faces of the freepers when they go to vote on machines developed by the people here.

[patinor4america]

18. ABSOLUTELY PUT OUT OF COMMISSION........

with the LAW. There are laws about our voting, I believe. You know, in the Constitution.......or at least in the states' Constitutions......right?

I mean laws about the votes, like they need to be verifiable (sp?) and stuff like that. Ya know. They can't verify that Bush was elected in any way whatsoever. They CAN verify that Kerry was, by the exit polls.

[merh]

5. They settled to prevent more discovery that might help

in the investigation of the stolen presidential votes. Probably have a gag order and an order to seal the court file because of trade secrets and the "proprietary nature" of the documents. Settlement also probably provides that California will return all evidence, documents to Diebold.

It is a way to prevent the attention to the California screw ups and to keep the discovery from being used in the investigation of the 2004 Presidential election.

[Ima]

7. Darn

I'll bet you'r right.

[merh]

10. Corporations do not settle when they are wrong,

they settle to prevent the litigation from have an adverse effect on other litigation or their profits and operations.

Liability has nothing to do with it.

[indigolady]

9. I think Bev Harris gave the A.G. of CAL the data. n/t

[merh]

12. Bev may have given them the data,

but the active litigation provided that discovery depositions of employees of Diebold could be taken (could be scheduled in the next month?), also, request for production of documents may have been filed or could have been filed that requested documents in addition to bev's evidence and access to Diebold machines for testing purposes.

[AP]

11. BBV gets what % of this? 15%?

[yowzayowzayowza]

14. Not millionaires after all.

After lawyers and overhead... Methinkz they were hoping for more.

[Kelvin Mace]

16. So what was accomplished?

$2.6 million and they keep selling the same crap?

[Nihil]

17. $2.6M is cheap for an election ...

... George would have added a suitable "contingency" line item when
he commissioned Diebold to deliver their "project".

$2.6M

Not a lot when compared to how much Diebold et al made from the country
from their machine sales.

Absolutely SFA when compared to how much the Bush cabal have made from
the last four years.

Not even on the scale when compared to how much they will make in the
next four.

[goclark]

19. It should have been a billion!

They have LIED and they got caught.

This is the tip of the iceberg.
Let's make them melt.
This should be spread far and wide.

[Catchawave]

20. Are other states following suit? n/t