Friday, December 19, 2003
Diebold voting machine programmer convicted of "tampering with computer files"
This is almost too rich!
Via Atrios at Wired News (though the site seems quite slow: I wonder why!)
Maybe the planning to tamper with computer files was the background check, eh?
Given this new information, and given the statement by Deibold's head of election systems, Wally O'Dell that "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president [Bush] next year," and given what we now know about how Florida purged the electoral rolls of Democrats using technology, I think it's time for us to start questioning the legitimacy of the 2004 elections, wherever electronic voting technology is being used.
After Florida 2000, only a fool would think that the Republicans won't do whatever it takes to hold onto power, and that includes widespread and undetectable vote tampering.
We know the Republicans have the motive, the means, and the opportunity. We know they have a record. Now we see them putting criminals in place to carry out the crime. Why wait to blow the whistle?
Via Atrios at Wired News (though the site seems quite slow: I wonder why!)
Voter advocate Bev Harris alleged Tuesday that managers of a subsidiary of Diebold Inc., one of the country's largest voting equipment vendors, included a cocaine trafficker, a man who conducted fraudulent stock transactions and a programmer jailed for falsifying computer records.
The programmer, Jeffrey Dean, wrote and maintained proprietary code used to count hundreds of thousands of votes as senior vice president of Global Election Systems. Diebold purchased GES in January 2002.
According to a public court document released before GES hired him, Dean served time in a Washington state correctional facility for stealing money and tampering with computer files in a scheme that "involved a high degree of sophistication and planning."
Maybe the planning to tamper with computer files was the background check, eh?
Given this new information, and given the statement by Deibold's head of election systems, Wally O'Dell that "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president [Bush] next year," and given what we now know about how Florida purged the electoral rolls of Democrats using technology, I think it's time for us to start questioning the legitimacy of the 2004 elections, wherever electronic voting technology is being used.
After Florida 2000, only a fool would think that the Republicans won't do whatever it takes to hold onto power, and that includes widespread and undetectable vote tampering.
We know the Republicans have the motive, the means, and the opportunity. We know they have a record. Now we see them putting criminals in place to carry out the crime. Why wait to blow the whistle?
