IL -- DuPage Election Chairman Took $12,500 from Diebold Vendor

[AtLiberty]

Former recorder accused of conflict of interest over party

By Robert Sanchez
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Thursday, October 05, 2006

When friends threw a retirement party two years ago for DuPage County Recorder J.P. “Rick” Carney, Fidlar Election Co. picked up the $9,000 dinner tab.

But Carney, who now is chairman of the DuPage Election Commission, insists that gift — and past campaign contributions — from the Rock Island-based election equipment vendor didn’t buy his support for a controversial electronic voting machine.

Still, a watchdog group is calling Carney’s participation in a December 2005 vote to spend more than $4 million on 732 electronic voting machines produced by Diebold Election Systems “a shocking conflict of interest.”

“Mr. Carney should have disclosed the contributions in a more public manner and recused himself from the vote,” said Jean Kaczmarek, of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project.

In fact, the Glen Ellyn resident said, Carney never should have accepted his appointment to the commission “knowing the public outcry against Diebold at the time.”

“I actually think it’s a pretty good criticism,” he said. “It makes sense.”
After all, Fidlar sells Diebold’s touch-screen voting machines, which have been criticized for having security flaws.

In 2003 and 2004, Fidlar donated a total of $3,500 to Carney’s campaign. Then there’s the $9,000 the company kicked in for Carney’s November 2004 retirement shindig in Wheaton, which cost about $15,000.

“They (the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project) did some good research on that,” Carney said.

More...

http://www.dailyherald.com/news/dupagestory.asp?id=235225&cc=d&tc=&t=

[mod mom]

1. So now Diebold is using distributors (Fidlar) to cover their tracks...hmm

[Mind_your_head]

2. Hmmmm.....What's this part all about???

Carney, who spent two decades overseeing DuPage’s deeds and property titles, admits Fidlar was one of his longtime vendors for the recorder’s office. And the company donated to his campaign for years.

But that didn’t stop him from severing Fidlar’s ties to the election commission.

“You’ve got to understand that old Fidlar were friends of mine,” he said. “The new Fidlar are enemies of mine.”

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What caused the shift in Carney's view of Fidlar? Did Fidlar USED to be a good vendor with integrity when Carney was doing deed/title work and now that they've got the Diebold connection they're not so anymore?

I don't understand this. I wish the Herald would've elaborated more in the story. I would doubt that Carney made the friend/enemy statement without explaining further.....the Herald just didn't put it in the story (typical for the Daily Herald, btw).

[Peace Patriot]

3. Well, the "old Fidlar" would be the ones who sold out to, and likely

profited nicely, from the Diebold takeover. And what's all this about friends/enemies in our PUBLIC OFFICES RUNNING OUR ELECTIONS??!! Jeez.

It sounds like the goddamned Mafia!

[truckin]

4. Fidlar Chambers have been around for a long time.

They were mentioned in the VOTESCAM book and there was suspicion of a Titusville, FL election supervisor who lived in a $750,000 house and had a salary of $66,000. It seems that in the 1980's Titusville awarded Fidlar a $20M contract for computers to count their ballots without any bids or public knowledge. Can't verify this but it sounds about par for the course in Florida.

In Connecticut the SOTS has awarded a contract to LHS for Diebold optical scanners. However, she has refused to say the word Diebold in numerous quotes to the press. She will only say that the state is purchasing LHS machines.

[AtLiberty]

5. This fills in a few holes...

http://ballot-integrity.net/docs/DuPage_News_Release_10-3-2006.pdf

[AtLiberty]

6. BBV says DuPage is in top two WORST places to vote in America

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/8/44140.html