corrente

I love the free market, don't you?

Sagging performance and mounting legal costs in its electronic voting segment kept third-quarter earnings nearly flat at Diebold Inc., the company said Wednesday.

iebold shares fell 91 cents, or 2 percent, to close at $45.70 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange - toward the lower end of their 52-week range of $43.88 to $57.43.

Diebold's touch-screen voting machines have led to widespread criticism of security and to lawsuits. About 50,000 of the company's touch-screen machines will be used in 11 states in the Nov. 2 election.

Walden W. O'Dell, Diebold chairman and chief executive, said election systems issues in California "had a negative impact on earnings and margins during the third quarter. However, we expect that the modernizing of voting systems in the United States will continue in 2005 and beyond, and we should have better visibility of the direction of the U.S. election systems market after the November election."

Revenue from election systems was $34.4 million, down 28 percent from the $47.9 million recorded last year. Diebold reported the election systems business reduced earnings by 4 cents per share in the third quarter; election systems added 6 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.
(via AP)

Ah, we remember Walden O'Dell! He's the one who's "helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to [Bush] next year" (back, see how the entire e-voting process is owned by Republicans) Why is O'Dell so confident about the 2004 results? Does he know something we only suspect?