Cleveland Plain Dealer outs Diebold's Republican ties

[BevHarris]

buried halfway down the story...
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1060507915313300.xml

"Political insiders say it would be virtually impossible - given the firm's political connections - for Blackwell, a Republican, to not have Diebold on his final list. Diebold chief executive Walden O'Dell is a generous contributor to Republican campaigns and fund-raisers, from the Republican National Committee and White House on down.

"He and his wife donated a combined $8,500 to Gov. Bob Taft between June 2001 and October 2002, state records show, and Taft subsequently appointed O'Dell to the board of trustees at Ohio State University. W.R. "Tim" Timken, one of Ohio's most influential Republicans, is on Diebold's board. Members of the Timken family contributed almost $66,000 to Republican campaigns in Ohio from 2000 to 2002.

Also, former White House chief of staff John Sununu, a longtime political supporter of Blackwell's, visited Ohio at one point to discuss forming a joint venture to help promote Diebold in its former incarnation as Global Election Systems.

Company spokesman reverses himself (again)

"Diebold spokesman Mike Jacobsen initially denied that the offer regarding in-state manufacturing was ever made. But he later corrected himself."

(to sweeten the pot, Diebold had offered to "consider" doing manufacturing inside the state of Ohio, to which an Ohio official replied "This is not an economic-development project," Paro said. "This is a process that will provide the voters of Ohio with the best election systems available, at the best value for the taxpayers.

Bev Harris

[DEMActivist]

1. Well, are we surprised yet?

Let's see...this could be why the source code favors one party over the other? Ya think?

[TinfoilHatProgrammer]

29. it doesn't

There's no indication the source code favors one party over another, as you're well aware. Why must you people so grossly corrupt the truth over and over again in an attempt to make your point?

Third-party academic analysis showed some party-neutral general security holes. That is all. There's been nothing published to suggest the system favors one party over another, and the "Hopkins heroes" dismissed the very idea as "ludicrous".

Shame.

JC

[BevHarris]

2. Gosh this is frustrating: Look at this:

From the Toledo Blade and yes, they just committed to Diebold touch screens, http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030810/NEWS05/108100093

"I recognize her concerns, " said Paula Hicks-Hudson, a Democrat who is deputy director of the Lucas County elections board. "The board knows that every voting system has flaws. What we have to do is have booth workers on the ground to do the best they can to make sure things go right."

I keep seeing this excuse. Can anyone explain to me how a poll worker can monitor the programming inside a touch screen?

Bev

[sandnsea]

7. Will they be programmers?

Who has the technical expertise to make sure these machines are counting correctly? Can you somehow add that to your message, that it takes a person with a certain expertise to monitor these machines? That the booth workers would need training in XYZ in order to effectively monitor the elections?

Or maybe you've done that and I missed the message, I don't know. You've done an amazing job, btw, one person can make a difference! Even though there's tons of help along the way, usually one person gets the ball rolling and keeps it rolling and I think you're the one who did that.
:loveya:

[SharonAnn]

18. It doesn't matter if the pool/booth worker is a programmer -

He/she won't be able to get inside the machine and read the programming there.

[Eloriel]

12. I share your frustration

It's such a blindingy ignorant response. But then I'm sure it's been fed to them by the likes of Diebold itself.

Sigh.

Eloriel

[Kolesar]

3. Bush came to Canton to visit Timken a few months ago.

Unrelated: My manager said that Diebold was a crappy place to work when he worked there several decades ago. Lots of pressure and mind games by the top management.

[nolabels]

32. I don't know if there are any connections there are not, maybe .........

this old news or stuff, but just picked out
http://www.ebearing.com/news2001/news181.htm
The eBearing News
March 23, 2001


Timken's Stephen Perry Likely to Become
Bush's GSA Administrator
copyright © 2001 eBearing Inc.


Stephen Perry, Senior VP of Human Resources at The Timken Company (Canton, Ohio) is likely to be approved shortly as head of the General Services Administration in the new Bush administration.


President Bush announced on Wednesday, March 21st, that he would be nominating Mr. Perry for GSA Administrator. No difficulties are expected in the Senate confirmation process.


Mr. Perry's competition for the nomination had been William Coleman, GSA Commissioner of Public Buildings Service under former President George Bush, Sr.


Mr. Perry had been Ohio's State Director of Administrative Services under former Governor George Voinovich in the early 1990's.


Ex-Governor Voinovich is now Senator Voinovich, and has been pushing the Bush administration to consider Perry for a number of top posts. Voinovich is on the Government Affairs Committee and sits on the nomination review panel.
(snip)

[cmd]

34. Perry is the GSA administrator

and maintains close ties with Timmy Timken.
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/06/19/loc_OH-Perry.html

[blm]

36. What ties does Timken

have to that Summit County GOP head involved in the sex scandal? That would be a good one to link.

[blm]

4. You're welcome.

heheh ;)

[DEMActivist]

6. WTF???

Did you have anything useful to add to the discussion?

[blm]

8. Some people

know other people that help get stories through to certain news outlets.

That's all. Why the harsh tone, DEM?

I'm hardly a traitor.

[DEMActivist]

10. Nothing to do with Dean...nothing at all

nothing you have said in this thread makes any sense.

I was asking WTF? I'm still asking WTF?

[ConsAreLiars]

13. I suspect

the story was passed on to Bev by BLM. The message simply expressed pleasure at seeing it here. Nothing sinister.

[DEMActivist]

15. Did you see that somewhere?

Or you just deducted that from something that went right over my head?

Frankly, there's not a thing funny about this story. They are steam rolling right over the top of us selling these machines like we not even here and our objections make no difference.

As someone who has dedicated many months to this issue, I don't see anything here that warrants a "hehehehehhe."

[ConsAreLiars]

16. If I recall correctly

I saw this story cited on the Yahoo groups Diebold discussion board and wondered at the time if Bev had seen it. Since the Yahoo forum was cited in some DU thread (my computer crashed and the "history" page in my browser was lost, so I don't have the link now) I just guessed that BLM passed it on to her. Because of this, I didn't interpret the heehee as referring to the news itself, which I agree is not good.

On edit: The story shows a fight coming into ther open, which is good, and the steam-rollering side also, which is bad.

[DEMActivist]

27. I guess I missed all that as well

Because the post made no sense to me at all. Thank you for clarifying and explaining what that was about. That's all I was asking.

[blm]

17. Relax, DEM....

SOME people know OTHER people at certain news outlets who are still working behind the scenes to get more focus on the story and its GOP connections.

The "heheh" was just a bit triumphal, since the PD was one of the outlets targeted.

[InkAddict]

28. FYI - I posted this on LBN at 4:32 pm

and it wasn't booted for bad form or time. That's the purpose of these forums -- to share and keep updated on issues that have import for us all. Stop the bickering - we need to work together if we want to boot out those that can possibly render our votes silent.

[ConsAreLiars]

35. The Yahoo Group

I first saw it at is one of those company oriented investment boards:
http://messages.yahoo.com/?action=q&board=DBD

The specific message was:
http://finance.messages.yahoo.com/bbs?.mm=FN&action=m&board=4687614&tid=dbd&sid=4687614&mid=6619
An interesting view of how these questions are playing out within another e-village.

[DEMActivist]

19. Nice try, BLM

editing out your snide comments about Dean won't work.

Wow, that was a pathetic attempt at revisionism.

[BevHarris]

21. Arrgh. Can't we all just get along?

Dem you have been outstanding, but let's give credit where it is due. I do remember a DUer saying they had a contact in the Plain Dealer (and blm, I'm really sorry I didn't put your name to it).

Okay, and the pressure gets to us sometimes. Dem is sitting on more news today that is disturbing, and some things haven't gone quite right...but c'mon, let's not fight.

Bev

[Eloriel]

24. Bev, maybe yoy missed blm's original comment, which has since

been conveniently sanitized.

And I'm quite sure you're not aware of blm's outrageous behavior on just about any and all Dean threads misrepresenting Dean and his record, etc.

It's just lovely that s/he has done something good for a change. ANd yes, I'll give credit where credit is due. But it doesn't wipe out all the previous garbage either.

As I've said many times before, I absolutely don't mind people supporting other candidates OR criticism of "my" candidiate. Why I do mind are lies -- intentional or otherwise -- about ANY candidate, but esp. mine.

There was no reason for a remark about Dean on this thread, snide or otherwise (and it was snide) and DEMActivist was entirely right to call blm out on her cryptic and snide remark.

Of course, it would also be nice if people just simply said what they meant instead of tossing out little inside jokes. But I suppose that's way too much to ask.

Eloriel

[blm]

26. Relax...I reposted it

so you can drop the overdramatization.

"Just because I don't trust Dean doesn't mean I'm a traitor to our common causes, Dem."

Got handcuffs?

[blm]

22. Nope...the comment wasn't snide...

I just wanted to generalize it.

[DEMActivist]

23. So, if your Dean comment wasn't snide, tell me...

Why did you go go back and edit it out of your post?

I'll tell you why - because it was wrong and you fucking know it.

[blm]

25. Then, here ya go...

"Just because I don't trust Dean doesn't mean I'm a traitor to our common causes, DEM."

I figured your tone was harsh because I don't trust Dean and have no qualms about saying so.

[BevHarris]

20. Ahhhh....I knew we had someone working the Plain Dealer

It was you! It was you! Actually, I was driving home and kept thinking this must have had a DU connection, because you rarely see them grab the info on Bush and Timken and Cheney.

Great job, blm!

Bev

[blm]

31. Been a bit quiet...

but, it doesn't mean I'm not bustin' for the issue.
;)

[The Zanti Regent]

5. Bev, have you ever checked into Beaver County, PA's Diebold machines?

Beaver County bought the Diebold Machines five years ago and, let's just say strange things have happened in the vote count since then.

Although it is a Democratic stronghold, the machines showed that 66% of the voters went with GOPer Melissa Hart. I find that HARD to believe. I wonder if those machines were tampered with, too????

[Ivory_Tower]

9. What's been going on in Beaver County?

That's where I grew up.

It's definitely old Democratic territory, but there are a lot of Reagan Democrats there. I remember seeing on OpenSecrets.org that the Aliquippa area had a lot of donations to Pat Buchanan.

Which district is Melissa Hart from? (I'll see if I can find it myself, but figured I'd ask anyway.)

[Junkdrawer]

30. Are they touch screen or optical character machines?

And how long have they been in use? Do you know if the county uses GEMS software to manage the election?

[burrowowl]

11. Voting machine

forum in Philly early September.
Was posted in Buzzflash

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/08-06-2003/0001996220&EDATE=WED+Aug+06+2003,+09:01+AM

Is Bev going tobe there?

[MsFlorida]

14. amazingly enough

Diebold's stuff gets sold on the internet. I have a "good" friend, that views diebold's throwouts and profits from them -- it is on ebay. I dont know enough about programming et al, but perhaps something will be there that can be of use.

[cmd]

33. Did you know about this Bush/Timken connection?

President Signs Appointments for SIPC Chair, Two Additional Board Members
WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 22, 2003 - William R. Timken, Jr., of Canton, Ohio, Thomas W. Grant, of New York City, New York, and Noe Hinojosa, Jr., of Dallas, Texas were confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 8, 2003, to serve as the newest directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which maintains a special reserve fund authorized by Congress to help investors at failed brokerage firms. On April 10, 2003, President George W. Bush signed the appointments, clearing the way for Timken to assume his responsibilities as the new chairman of the SIPC board of directors ... (mohttp://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/06/19/loc_OH-Perry.htmlre)


http://www.sipc.org/

edit: one too many s's
edit: enquirer link doesn't work