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Voting machine controversy

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. ........
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Now Your Vote Is The Property Of A Private Corporation

in the November 2002 election, when some Florida voters pressed the touch-screen "button" for Bush's Democratic opponent, votes were instead recorded for Bush. "Misaligned" touch-screen voting machines were blamed for the computer-driven vote-theft, and when a losing candidate in Palm Beach sued to inspect the software of Florida's computerized voting machines, a local judge denied the petition, citing the privacy rights of the corporation that wrote the programs.

This was followed by January 2003 revelations that Republican Senator Chuck Hagel was the former head (and a current stockholder) of the private voting machine company that tabulated the vote in Nebraska - where he ran for office and won - and that he had neglected to tell Senate ethics investigators about it.

the first week of March, 2003.

Dan Spillane, a former software engineer for a voting machine company that includes a former CIA Director and Dick Cheney's former assistant on its board of directors, has sued his employer for firing him when he pointed out holes in their system that he claims could lead to vote-rigging. Although there is a certification process for ensuring the honesty of votes tabulated by computerized, touch-screen voting machines, according to Spillane the system works "very much like Arthur Andersen in the Enron case." (Anderson Consulting has since renamed itself, added Microsoft's CEO to its board, and gone into the business of helping corporations get contracts to perform previously-government-run services.)
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October 9, 2003


THE NATION
FBI Put Bug in Philadelphia Mayor's Office

By Josh Getlin, Times Staff Writer


NEW YORK — A sophisticated listening device discovered this week in Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street's office was planted by FBI agents, federal law enforcement officials confirmed Wednesday. But they refused to comment on whether the mayor is the target of an investigation, and said the bug had nothing to do with the city's hotly contested mayoral race.

The confirmation by three federal officials threw the city's election into turmoil. Campaign officials for Street, a Democrat, suggested the U.S. Justice Department may have planted the listening device for partisan political purposes. The Nov. 4 election pits the mayor against Republican businessman Sam Katz in a replay of their tight 1999 contest.

"I haven't done anything wrong and I don't know that anybody in my Cabinet or in my staff around me has done anything wrong," Street said during an afternoon meeting with reporters. "Obviously this is a matter of great concern to me."

The bug, which contained multiple microphones, was discovered Tuesday during a routine security sweep of Street's offices. The device, planted in the ceiling, did not have a recording device but was capable of broadcasting to buildings or parked vans in the immediate vicinity, police officials said.

U.S. Atty. Patrick Meehan, who represents the eastern district of Pennsylvania, on Wednesday declined to provide any details about the bug or whether any investigation of Street is underway. But he repeated earlier denials that the listening device was planted to influence the mayoral election in Philadelphia, a city of 1.5 million people.

"The U.S. attorney's office in the eastern district has a long and proud history of doing its work without regard to partisan politics," Meehan said in a statement. "That was the practice of my predecessors and it is my practice as well."

Frank Keel, Street's campaign spokesman, was skeptical. "The timing of the discovery of these listening devices seems incredibly strange, seeing that we are four weeks out of the election and we have a Democratic mayor ahead in the polls and we are on the eve of the first debate," he told reporters.

Maureen Garrity, a Katz spokeswoman, said the Republican candidate's campaign had nothing to do with the listening device.

Street defeated Katz by fewer than 10,000 votes four years ago, and the current election has been marked by bitter charges that each side has injected race into the campaign. Street is black and Katz is white. The two, who have accused each other of dishonesty and irresponsible campaigning, will debate three times before the vote.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and other state politicians on Wednesday called on the FBI to provide more details about the listening device.

"The mayor says he has been told through sources that he's not the target of an investigation," Rendell told reporters. "If that's true, then [FBI officials] owe an explanation to the people of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania."
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'Bugged' Mayor Insists He's Not an FBI Target

Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street tried to get his reelection campaign back on track after FBI bugging devices were found in his office, insisting that he had done nothing wrong and that prosecutors had assured him he was not the target of an inquiry.

He and others called on the FBI to find out who was targeted — something the bureau refused to respond to for the third straight day.
Ah well but what's an attack on our basic right to vote. Just so long as the elections turn out "right", eh?


"The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery...." -- Thomas Paine