Walden O'Dell (CEO of Diebold) interview

[garybeck]

prepare to puke....


AP INTERVIEW: Diebold CEO: Spotlight on E-voting business waning

M.R. KROPKO

Associated Press


CANTON, Ohio - The leader of touch-screen voting machine maker Diebold Inc. said on Thursday that he believes the now extinguished spotlight of last year's contentious presidential election will help stabilize the company's elections machine business.

Last year, several states, including Ohio, delayed buying touch-screen voting machines because of concerns about security. Critics from across the nation focused on Diebold, some protesting last year's shareholders' meeting held eight months before the November election.

There were no protesters at Thursday's shareholders' meeting and the scrutiny on Diebold has seemed to wane since it came up with a way to have a secure paper trail for voters who choose to cast ballots electronically and that the software running touch-screen voting machines, also known as the source code, will survive scrutiny.

"People now have choices they can make in a calmer environment," chief executive Walden O'Dell told The Associated Press in an interview after the meeting. "If they want touch screens with printers, they can have them. If they want touch-screens without printers, they can have them. Or they can use optical scan because it's paper based."

"So I think this highly intense environment has relaxed somewhat, and in addition, we've reduced concerns greatly by having touch screens with voter verifiable paper receipts, which people can see and which stay in the machine and I think that satisfied many people," he said.

Diebold, whose business mainly is making ATMs and security systems, needs the calmness in its small but high-profile elections business.

Just last week, shares fell 10 percent after Diebold reported an 8.5 percent drop in first-quarter earnings and said earnings for the year would miss Wall Street estimates.

O'Dell said despite the decline in expectations, the company is still growing in terms of revenue and profits.

Diebold says its election systems business appears to be stabilizing due to projected improved sales in Ohio, which has gone forward with e-voting plans after the company addressed security and price concerns. Several other states, including Utah and Louisiana, have Diebold on their short lists of vendors to provide new voting machines required by federal law.

He said Diebold has projected sales this year in its election systems segment will range from $85 million to $90 million.

"The big driver of this year's revenue in voting is Ohio," he said.

States must replace outdated voting systems by the first federal elections of 2006 under the Help America Vote Act.

Diebold shares rose 21 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $48.56 at the close of trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has been trading in a 52-week range of $43.88 to $57.81.

Diebold has about 13,000 employees worldwide.




http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/business/11513648.htm

[MontageOfFreedom]

1. Oh my that is really pathetic....

The only reason Diebold's election machines haven't fallen all the way yet is because Blackwell and his goons have gladly endorsed them and paid them overly huge royalties for Ohio.

Its obvious they are afraid now, they should be because the Divestiture of Democracy is coming and its going to be the people vs the corrupt corporate right-wings...

[MontageOfFreedom]

3. "Which people can see and which stay in the machine"

Uh oh, the truth comes out. Paper audit trails versus verified paper ballots. Diebold has now succeeded in bamboozling Ohio.

Audit receipts make almost no difference at all, if they can match the bogus total to the receipt. Strange choice of words there..

[MeDeMax]

2. good post with info...

I am glad to hear two key phrases there - "paper receipts" and "source code can be audited".

If diebold didn't do these things they were not going to be able to sell their machines.

Canton is practically in our backyard.

[garybeck]

4. paper receipts are bad

have you seen the new Diebold printers? if not check this out:

http://www.votetrustusa.org/blogs/newdieboldprinters.htm

even if they were better printers, the whole idea of a printed receipt on a DRE is a bad idea. it gives voters the false impression that their vote is really going to be counted correctly but that we still won't know unless there's a recount.

we need paper ballots, not paper receipts.

[Kip Humphrey]

5. I guess the movement is over, folks. What shall we do now that its over?

Now that the corporate thieves think its all over, how about we provide a little surprise, eh?

1. A Counter-Commission Election Justice Hearing in Houston on June 29th followed by a mass demonstration (2) the next day when the Carter-Baker Selection Reform Commission meets at Rice University?

3. Start the weekend before with a series of working committees to prepare hearing reports covering:
Election Fraud investigative findings
Election litigation report
Election Suppression report
Electronic Voting report
Election Exit Polls analysis
Election Reform report
Restore Democracy Activism report

4. Follow up with an Activist conference (Friday & Saturday) to map out the movement's future steps.


Do you think we could get John Conyers & Barbara Boxer interested?

Do you think we could get the 100+ Election Justice activist organizations behind this?

Do you think we could get DFA, PDA, and Kucinich groups to band together to put this together?

Do you think we could pivot the movement around this and use the Carter-Baker commission hearing as a focal point?

Inquiring dissidents want to know...