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Diebold Cover-up Reported in LA Times


"California election officials have rejected an electronic voting machine by Diebold after tests revealed unacceptable levels of screen freezes and paper jams. Three counties already have purchased the TSX voting machine, which was found to have a failure rate of 10%."
  -- Los Angeles Times/AP, 7/30/05

Dear friends,

Diebold is the world's largest voting-machine company, with over 50% of the world market. The majority of US citizens who voted on electronic machines used Diebold devices. Yet the below article reports that California election officials have just rejected one of these voting machines after finding a failure rate of 10%! This is huge news which should have made front page headlines. We have been repeatedly told that electronic voting machines are completely reliable, yet these machines show that 10% of the votes cast on them may be lost, which could easily change the results of any close election.

In April of 2004, California's Secretary of State Kevin Shelley called for a criminal investigation of Diebold, saying the company had lied to state officials. Shelley stated, "There was a wholesale breakdown in the election last March. Untold thousands of individuals were turned away and denied their right to vote because the voting equipment couldn't start." So many of the machines malfunctioned or ran unapproved software that Shelley took the extraordinary step of decertifying them. Interestingly, a media smear campaign pushed Shelley out of office less than a year after taking this action.

The elections issue is not a partisan matter. Fair elections are the cornerstone of representative democracy. Without fair elections, we can never be certain that the will of the people is being represented in government. Elections have been manipulated by both parties for many years. For an abundance of reliable, verifiable information showing a major cover-up of elections problems, see our Elections Information Center. Please help to support a truly representative democracy by educating yourself on this vital matter and spreading this important information to your friends and colleagues, and thanks for caring.

With best wishes,
Fred Burks for WantToKnow.info


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-machine30jul30,1,616478.story?coll=la-news-state

Voting Machines Touch and Go
State election officials reject Diebold devices after they fail test. Firm vows to fix problems.

From Associated Press

SACRAMENTO – California election officials have rejected an electronic voting machine by Diebold after tests revealed unacceptable levels of screen freezes and paper jams.

Three counties already have purchased the TSX voting machine, which was found to have a failure rate of 10%.

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said that was too much of a risk and notified company officials in a letter sent Wednesday.

In a mock election held last week to test the 96 touch-screen machines, McPherson noted in the letter that his staff encountered "problems with paper jamming on the ... printer module."

The state withdrew certification for some of Diebold's e-voting equipment in April 2004 after then-Secretary of State Kevin Shelley found those systems unreliable because they lacked a paper trail.

The state was testing the touch-screen voting machines before recertifying the system.

Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems planned to fix the problems and would reapply for California approval, company spokesman David Bear said.

"As I understand it, there were 10 paper jams," Bear said. "If you have a printer, you have the possibility of this, but you certainly want to lessen that possibility."

He noted that Diebold's system was the first to undergo such extensive testing for the paper trail.

San Joaquin, Kern and San Diego counties have purchased the TSX system, the secretary of state's office said, spending $40 million on 13,000 machines that have been warehoused since 2003.

Other counties were poised to buy the machines if McPherson approved them.

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Diebold Cover-up