Sunday, January 18, 2004 - This is an early release and may be updated

Ohio Counties to Adopt Diebold Voting Machines

Voting-Machine Maker Gave $200,000 in Soft Money To Republican National Committee

by David M. Fine

At least 35 counties in the state of Ohio have chosen to use a touch screen voting machine manufactured by Diebold, a company based in North Canton, Ohio.

Diebold's Vote-Taker and Counter The new voting systems will print out vote totals at the end of the election and can also transmit results by modem.

The Mill has found that, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' contribution database, Diebold gave $100,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2000 and additional sums between 2001 and 2002 totaling $95,000. Including Diebold CEO William O'Dell's personal soft-money contributions of $5,965 during that cycle, the total amount of contributions exceeds $200,000 for the period.

A further search of the database showed Diebold to be, of the four companies competing for contracts, the only one to contribute large sums to any political party.

Mr. O'Dell has been conspicuous in his support for President Bush, pledging in a letter to the President last Summer that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

Last week Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) expressed concern about the voting system selection process, and Mr. O'Dell's unabashed partisanship, at a Democratic event near Toledo, Ohio. She said that without the ability to verify the votes cast, "If Diebold prevails, I am deeply worried about this state. We are very worried about [Diebold] controlling the smart card."

There is currently a stand-off in Kaptur's district over what kind of machine to use. The Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is supposed to break the impasse.

The State of Ohio required counties to select a new voting system by January 15th.

The State of Maryland, whose Governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr, is a Republican, has also opted to use Diebold's touch-screen system.

All of the new touch-screen systems have been demonstrated to possess security vulnerabilities and do not provide any physical record of the vote.

An independent evaluation of Diebold's AccuVote-TS voting system by Science Application International Corp (SAIC) for Maryland concluded, "The system…is at high risk of compromise."

Another limited review of Diebold's voting technology, conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Rice University, found that the "Voting Device Developer" - Diebold, in this case - would be able to "create, delete, and modify votes on device."

Ohio enlisted Compuware to evaluate the systems, which found that Diebold's had the greatest number of "high" security risks, totaling five. Compuware also found varying levels of security risk in the three other systems Ohio considered, those manufactured by Election Systems and Software (ES&S), Hart Intercivic, and Sequoia Election systems, which is owned by De La Rue, a British Company.

The Sunday, January 18th editorial in the New York Times, "Fixing Democracy," stated, "Diebold is hardly alone among major voting machine manufacturers in contributing to elected officials, who represent virtually their only market."

However, a Mill inquiry into other three companies and their political contributions found otherwise.

Of the companies with voting machines in the running in Ohio, Diebold alone made large soft-money contributions.

Of those individuals within the other three companies that did contribute, the amounts are insignificant in camparison to Diebold's massive donations to the RNC. For example, David E. Hart, Chairman of Hart InterCivic, gave Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) $1,000 in 2002, and John Groh, VP at ES&S gave $300 to Nebraska's Republican Campaign Committee.

While election officials aim to eventually install a voting system that would print out a "receipt", or physical proof, of the vote, they will not be ready for distribution by November 2004. The available systems do not have this feature.

A spokesperson for Diebold told the Toledo Blade that it currently has the receipt-printing technology, but is waiting for governments to certify the new version.

Without receipts, a hand recount is impossible.

President Bush signed the Help America Vote Act in 2002 which mandated upgrading of voting machines by January 1, 2006 at the latest. The federal government appropriated $3.8 billion for the project.

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Do you think it is appropriate for the state of Ohio to use voting machinery made by a major contributor to and open advocate of either political party? Click here to let Governor Bob Taft know what you think

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