News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinecabal-eliteelection-fraudelectronic — Viewing Item


Diebold ceo to help bush

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/106207171078040.xml?nohio

http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/106207171078040.xml?nohio
http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/106207171078040.xml

Voting machine controversy

08/28/03
Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.

O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund - partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington.

The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the 2004 election.

Blackwell's announcement is still in limbo because of a court challenge over the fairness of the selection process by a disqualified bidder, Sequoia Voting Systems.

In his invitation letter, O'Dell asked guests to consider donating or raising up to $10,000 each for the federal account that the state GOP will use to help Bush and other federal candidates - money that legislative Democratic leaders charged could come back to benefit Blackwell.

They urged Blackwell to remove Diebold from the field of voting-machine companies eligible to sell to Ohio counties.

This is the second such request in as many months. State Sen. Jeff Jacobson, a Dayton-area Republican, asked Blackwell in July to disqualify Diebold after security concerns arose over its equipment.

"Ordinary Ohioans may infer that Blackwell's office is looking past Diebold's security issues because its CEO is seeking $10,000 donations for Blackwell's party - donations that could be made with statewide elected officials right there in the same room," said Senate Democratic Leader Greg DiDonato.

Diebold spokeswoman Michelle Griggy said O'Dell - who was unavailable to comment personally - has held fund-raisers in his home for many causes, including the Columbus Zoo, Op era Columbus, Catholic Social Services and Ohio State University.

Ohio GOP spokesman Jason Mauk said the party approached O'Dell about hosting the event at his home, the historic Cotswold Manor, and not the other way around. Mauk said that under federal campaign finance rules, the party cannot use any money from its federal account for state- level candidates.

"To think that Diebold is somehow tainted because they have a couple folks on their board who support the president is just unfair," Mauk said.

Griggy said in an e-mail statement that Diebold could not comment on the political contributions of individual company employees.

Blackwell said Diebold is not the only company with political connections - noting that lobbyists for voting-machine makers read like a who's who of Columbus' powerful and politically connected.

"Let me put it to you this way: If there was one person uniquely involved in the political process, that might be troubling," he said. "But there's no one that hasn't used every legitimate avenue and bit of leverage that they could legally use to get their product looked at. Believe me, if there is a political lever to be pulled, all of them have pulled it."

Blackwell said he stands by the process used for selecting voting machine vendors as fair, thorough and impartial.

As of yesterday, however, that determination lay with Ohio Court of Claims Judge Fred Shoemaker.

He heard closing arguments yesterday over whether Sequoia was unfairly eliminated by Blackwell midway through the final phase of negotiations.

Shoemaker extended a temporary restraining order in the case for 14 days, but said he hopes to issue his opinion sooner than that.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jsmyth@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272


© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.

Copyright 2003 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved.


2004-general
2004-primaries
dissent
franklin-county
rollout
voting-disputes
About election systems and software inc
Companies close relationships election officials { August 4 2003 }
Compuware testing ohio machines
Control voting machines { January 31 2003 }
Convincted felons work for voting companies
Crooks in control { September 16 2002 }
Diebold backs of legal challenge
Diebold ceo committed to bush { November 9 2003 }
Diebold ceo to help bush
Diebold glitch not affecting scan equipment { September 30 2003 }
Diebold maryland reviews elections systems software { March 17 2006 }
Diebold stops executives from making political donations
Diebold sues over california voting systems
Electronic voting paper trail idea attacked { December 21 2006 }
Field grows for voting machines
Goldwater voting machine { November 16 2002 }
Grand jury grants chico ca machines
How bush wins 2004
Judge denies electronic voting challenge to march elections
Left accused of vote machine fraud before 2006 election { October 29 2006 }
More state of the art machines not chosen { June 17 2003 }
Pentagon program for internet voting insecure { January 22 2004 }
Republicans will take care of the vote counting { November 15 2004 }
Selections committee violated provisions { July 14 2003 }
Sen hagel connections { January 29 2003 }
Seqouia prices higher than others { September 10 2003 }
Sequoia comments on diebold
Sequoia prints recall ballots { August 12 2003 }
Sequoia software unprotected
Sequoia threatens legal action ohio
Task force finds voting machines easily manipulated { June 27 2006 }
Two voting companies two brothers count eighty percent { April 27 2004 }
Urosevich brothers run two top vote machine companies { April 28 2004 }
Vote machines rothschilds
Voting machine companies refuse disability access
Voting machines ensure bush victory

Files Listed: 36



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple