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.
