- California Set to Reject Diebold E-Voting Machines (April 24, 2004)
...California's state election commission is likely to throw out Diebold's current electronic voting machine, obliging counties to replace them bef... - Report Raises Electronic Vote Security Issues (September 25, 2003)
...te the risk. The new report, the second concerning voting machines from Diebold Election Systems, was conducted for the state of Maryland after researcher... - Test of Electronic Balloting System Finds Major Security Flaws (January 30, 2004)
...Electronic voting machines from Diebold Inc. have computer security and physical security problems that might... - Civil Rights Groups Sue Diebold Over Threats (November 4, 2003)
...eys specializing in free speech on the Internet filed suit Tuesday against Diebold Inc., demanding the voting equipment company stop sending legal threats to... - New Security Woes for E-Vote Firm (August 7, 2003)
...are over a file transfer protocol site last January, the inner workings of Diebold Election Systems have again been laid bare. A hacker has come forward... - Voting Machine Controversy (August 28, 2003)
... 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 —... - Elections Chief Tightens Vote Security (September 25, 2003)
...ections computer. Logan also said he will ask for a formal response by Diebold Election Systems to claims that the company's vote-counting systems may be... - Students Fight E-Vote Firm (October 21, 2003)
...d an "electronic civil disobedience" campaign against voting machine maker Diebold Election Systems. The students are protesting efforts by Diebold to pr... - Swarthmore Shuts Down Web Sites of Students Publicizing Company's Voting-Machine Memos (October 27, 2003)
...disseminate the documents. At issue are memos and other materials from Diebold Inc., a producer of electronic-voting machines that is based in North Cant... - Diebold Threatens Publishers of Leaked Documents (October 27, 2003)
...nal company documents that they claim raise serious security questions. Diebold Inc. sent "cease and desist" letters after the documents and internal e-ma... - Swarthmore Groups Told to Nix Links to Memos (October 23, 2003)
...are detailed in a set of 15,000 internal e-mail memos between employees at Diebold Inc., the Ohio voting-machine manufacturer. Diebold says a hacker illeg... - Voting Machine Showdown (February 10, 2004)
...Diebold, one of the nation's leading manufacturers of computerized voting machines... - Black Box Voting Blues (November 3, 2003)
... replace their Rube Goldbergesque technology with digital devices like the Diebold Accu-Vote voting terminal. Georgia uses Diebolds exclusively, and other st... - How to Hack an Election (January 31, 2004)
...ry since one team member picked the lock in "approximately 10 seconds." Diebold, the machines' manufacturer, rushed to issue a self-congratulatory pre... - E-Voting Flaws Risk Ballot Fraud (July 24, 2003)
... country's top suppliers of voting equipment. But the supplier, Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems, said it believed the software was "outdated and never wa... -
Diebold
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Diebold, Incorporated is a security systems company which is engaged primarily in the sale, manufacture, installation and service of self-service transaction systems (such as ATMs), electronic and physical security products (including vaults and currency processing systems), and software and integrated systems for global financial and commercial markets. It has recently entered the business of creating electronic voting terminals and solutions for government entities. Diebold was incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio in August, 1876, and is headquartered in North Canton, Ohio.
Table of contents 1 Diebold Election Systems
1.1 Accusations & criticism
2 Current controversy
3 External links
Diebold Election Systems
Diebold Elections Systems is run by Bob Urosevich, who has been working in the election systems industry since 1976. In 1979, Mr. Urosevich founded American Information Systems. He served as the President of AIS from 1979 through 1992, and that company, now known as Election Systems & Software, Inc., counted over 100 million ballots in the U.S. 2000 General Election. Bob's brother, Todd Urosevich, is Vice President, Aftermarket Sales with ES&S. In 1995, Bob Urosevich started I-Mark Systems, whose product was a touch screen voting system utilizing a smart card and biometric encryption authorization technology. Global Election Systems, Inc. acquired I-Mark in 1997, and on July 31, 2000 Mr. Urosevich was promoted from Vice President of Sales and Marketing and New Business Development to President and Chief Operating Officer. On January 22, 2002, Diebold announced the acquisition of GES, then a manufacturer and supplier of electronic voting terminals and solutions. The total purchase price, in stock and cash, was $24.7 million. Global Election Systems subsequently changed its name to Diebold Election Systems, Inc.
Accusations & criticism
Together Election Systems & Software, Inc. and Diebold Election Systems, Inc. are responsible for tallying around 80% of votes cast in the United States. The software architecture common to both is a creation of Mr. Urosevich's company I-Mark. Some critics claim that this structure is easily compromised, in part due to its reliance on Microsoft Access databases. Britain J. Williams, responsible for certification of voting machines for the state of Georgia has provided a negative assessment based on her accounting of potential exploits.
In August 2003, Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold, announced that he had been a top fund-raiser for President George W. Bush and had sent a get-out-the-funds letter to Ohio Republicans. When assailed by critics for the perceived conflict of interest, he pointed out that the company's election machines division is run out of Texas by a registered Democrat. Nonetheless, he vowed to lower his political profile lest his personal actions harm the company.
DES claims its systems provide strong immunity to ballot tampering and other vote rigging attempts. These claims have been challenged, notably by Bev Harris on her website, Blackboxvoting.com, and book by the same name.
According to critics, the I-Mark and Microsoft software each represent a single point of failure for the vote counting process, from which 80% of votes can be compromised via the exploit of a single line of code in either subsystem. Harris and C. D. Sludge, an Internet journalist, both claim there is also evidence that the Diebold systems have been exploited to tamper with American elections —a claim Harris expands in her book Black Box Voting.
Sludge further cites Votewatch for evidence that suggests a pattern of compromised voting machine exploits throughout the 1990s, and specifically involving the Diebold machines in the 2002 election.
Current controversy
Its voting machines, which are made by its subsidiary Diebold Election Systems (DES), have caused a public uproar among some opponents, some of which are engaged in "electronic civil disobedience" against legal attempts by Diebold to stop the release and publication of a number of internal memos.
In September 2003, a large number of internal Diebold memos, dating back to mid-2001, were posted to the Web by the website organizations Why War? and the Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons, a group of student activists at Swarthmore College. Diebold's critics believe that these memos reflect badly on Diebold's voting machines and business practices. Diebold has since reportedly sent takedown requests to sites hosting these documents demanding that they be removed in violation of the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act provisions of the DMCA found in § 512 of the United States Copyright Act.
In December 2003, an internal Diebold memo was leaked to the press, sparking controversy in Maryland. Maryland officials requested that Diebold add the functionality of printing voting receipts. The leaked memo said, "As a business, I hope we're smart enough to charge them up the wazoo [for this feature]".
External links
- Official site
- Diebold Election Systems by Disinfopedia
- Diebold memos Wiki
- Why War documents archive
- Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons
- Electronic Frontier Foundation case archive
- SF Indymedia report
- Wired.com Story
- Wired story: New Security Woes for E-Vote Firm
- Salon story on the controversy
- The Inquirer story on the Diebold documents story
- investigative report C. D. Sludge summary; Bev Harris on Diebold audit log
- evidence of method by Bev Harris - how an election hacker can exploit Diebold weaknesses
- Diebold - the face of modern ballot tampering
- Senate Ethics Director resigns; Senator Chuck Hagel admits owning voting machine company McCarthy Group
- News article concerning O'Dell's political activities
- A Metafilter posting that collects a large number of links on the Diebold affair