Read Who Owns The Four Voting Machine Companies ... :)

[Pallas180]

-snip-

Air America Radio's Mike Malloy gave the most succinct and passionate explanation in his Wednesday, November 3, 2004, program :

"The American vote count is controlled by three major corporate players, Diebold, ESS, Sequoia, and a fourth, SAIC, Science Applications International. All four are hard-wired into the Bush power structure, the Bush crime family.

"They have been given millions of dollars by the Bush regime to complete a sweeping computerization of voting machines that were just used in the 2004 election. The technology involved had a trial run during the 2002 mid-term elections. Georgia had Diebold machines in every precinct. As a result, a popular Democratic governor and senator were both unseated in what the media called an "amazing" 16 percent swing.

"Diebold's Walden O'Dell, a top Bush fundraiser, publicly committed himself to delivering his home state Ohio's votes to Bush. At Diebold, the election division is run by Bob Urosevich. Bob's brother, Todd, is a top executive at "rival" ES&S. The brothers were originally staked by Howard Ahmanson, a member of the Council For National Policy, a right-wing steering group stacked with Bush true believers. Ahmanson is also one of the bagmen behind the extremist Christian Reconstruction Movement, which advocates the theocratic takeover of American democracy.

"The four companies are interconnected; they are not four "competitors". Ahmanson has large stakes in ES&S, whose former CEO was Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. When Hagel ran for office, his own company counted the votes, and his victory was considered "an amazing upset". Hagel still has a million dollar stake in ES&S.

"Sequoia is the corporate parent of a private equity firm, Madison Dearborn, which is partner in the Carlyle Group. (Also see here.)

"Meanwhile, SAIC is referred to a "shadowy defense contractor". They have gotten into the vote count game both directly and through spinoffs by its top brass, including Admiral Bill Owens, former military aide to Dick Cheney, and Carlyle Group honcho Frank Carlucci and ex-CIA chief Robert Gates. SAIC's history of fraud charges and security "lapses" haven't prevented it from becoming one of the largest Pentagon and CIA contractors, and will doubtless encounter few obstacles in its entrance into the vote counting business. "

_____

Are Happy Days here again ???

[TheIdiot]

1. I heard this, too...

but can't find independent cinfirmation.

[Eloriel]

2. Google Lynn Landes

She has a page with extensive documentation of the ownership and cross ties. Then post the link here, if you will (I am a little busy elsewhere). Thanks.

[indigolady]

4. Lynn Landes

 

 





Published on Monday, September 16, 2002 by CommonDreams.org

Elections In America - Assume Crooks Are In Control

by Lynn Landes

Don't blame the poll workers in Florida. The facts, supported by voting machine experts and numerous newspaper articles, have made it clear. Computerized voting machines that were certified by the state of Florida, caused most of the problems in Florida's primary election. In the absence of paper ballots, the damage is now irreversible.

This was no accident. It's not new. And Florida is not alone.

"The concept is clear, simple, and it works. Computerized voting gives the power of selection, without fear of discovery, to whomever controls the computer," wrote the authors of VoteScam (1992), James & Kenneth Collier (both now deceased). It's a 'must read' book about how elections have been electronically and mechanically rigged in the United States for decades, and with the knowing and sometimes unknowing support of media giants and government officials, including... ironically... Janet Reno.

Only a few companies dominate the market for computer voting machines. Alarmingly, under U.S. federal law, no background checks are required on these companies or their employees. Felons and foreigners can, and do, own computer voting machine companies. Voting machine companies demand that clients sign 'proprietary' contracts to protect their trade secrets, which prohibits a thorough inspection of voting machines by outsiders. And, unbelievably, it appears that most election officials don't require paper ballots to back up or audit electronic election results. So far, lawsuits to allow complete access to inspect voting machines, or to require paper ballots so that recounts are possible...have failed.

As far as we know, some guy from Russia could be controlling the outcome of computerized elections in the United States.

In fact, Vikant Corp., a Chicago-area company owned by Alex Kantarovick, formerly of Minsk, Belorussia (also known as White Russia, formerly U.S.S.R.), supplies the all-important 'control cards' to Election Systems & Software (ES&S), the world's largest election management company, writes reporter Christopher Bollyn. According to ES&S, they have "handled more than 40,000 of the world's most important events and elections. ES&S systems have counted approximately 60% of the U.S. national vote for the past four presidential elections. In the U.S. 2000 general election, ES&S systems counted over 100 million ballots."

Getting back to Kantarovich, he would not disclose where the control cards are made, except they aren't made in America, writes Bollyn. Nor would he discuss his previous employment. Bollyn says he got some not-too-thinly-veiled threats from Kantarovich.

Kantarovich sounds more like the Russian mafia, than a legitimate businessman.

But the really big deal is this....all of ES&S's touch screen machines contain modems, "allowing them to communicate—and be communicated with—while they are in operation," reports Bollyn. That communication capability includes satellites. "Even computers not connected to modems or an electronic network can still be manipulated offsite, not during the election, but certainly before or after," says voting systems expert Dr. Rebecca Mercuri.

ES&S supplied the touch screens for Miami-Dade and Broward counties where the worst machine failures occurred. But the debacle was nothing new for ES&S. Associated Press (AP) reporter Jessica Fargen wrote in June 2000, "Venezuela's president and the head of the nation's election board accused ES&S of trying to destabilize the country's electoral process. In the United States, four states have reported problems with equipment supplied by the company. Faulty ES&S machines used in Hawaii's 1998 elections forced that state's first-ever recount."

Sequoia is another voting systems company that sends a cold chill down my spine. "Mob ties, bribery, felony convictions, and threats of coercion are visible in the public record of the election services company," according to investigative journalist and filmmaker Daniel Hopsicker, and reported in Spotlight.com. Hopsicker says that Pasquale "Rocco" Ricci, a 65-year-old senior executive with Sequoia, and the firm's Louisiana representative, recently pled guilty to passing out as much as $10 million dollars in bribes over the course of almost an entire decade." According to American Law Education Rights & Taxation (ALERT), Ricci is the president of Sequoia International, which also manufactures casino slot machines.

That's just great. Now, we could possibly have both the Russian mafia and the U.S. mafia involved in our elections.

In May 2002 Sequoia was bought by De La Rue, based in England. By their own estimate, De La Rue is "the world's largest commercial security printer and papermaker, involved in the production of over 150 national currencies and a wide range of security documents such as travelers checks and vouchers. Employing almost 7,000 people across 31 countries, (De La Rue) is also a leading provider of cash handling equipment and software solutions to banks and retailers worldwide." And they develop technology for secure passports, identity cards, and driver's licenses.

Okay, add Dr. Evil to the mix and be on the look-out for international money launderers, drug kingpins, and Nazis.

The Shoup Voting Solutions of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, has a reputation for rigging elections, wrote the late co-author of VoteScam, Jim Collier. According to Collier, in 1979, Ransom Shoup II, the president of the firm, was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice stemming from an FBI investigation of a vote-fixing scam involving the old-fashioned lever machines in Philadelphia."

These reports are just the tip of the iceberg. The numerous instances of U.S. voting systems error and fraud are documented in a 1988 report for the U.S. Commerce Department entitled, "Accuracy, Integrity, and Security in Computerized Vote-Tallying" by Roy G. Saltman, a computer consultant for the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Computer Systems Laboratory. Many other experts and observers have been warning and complaining about these problems for decades.

But complaints, warnings, reports, and books like "VoteScam," haven't deterred government officials like Pinellas County (Florida) Commissioners Calvin Harris and County Judge Patrick Caddell. They told the St. Petersburg Times in October 2001 that they were aware that all of the voting machine companies had "problems in their pasts." But, Harris said, "We have to look at this objectively and not get tied up into the emotions of, 'Some guy might be a crook."

Dear Commissioner Harris...when it comes to elections in America...assume crooks are in control...and then act accordingly.

Lynn Landes is a freelance journalist specializing in environmental issues. She writes a weekly column which is published on her website www.EcoTalk.org and reports environmental news for DUTV in Philadelphia, PA. Lynn's been a radio show host and a regular commentator for a BBC radio program.

Links:

http://www.votescam.com

http://www.securepoll.com

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0805-07.htm

[nodehopper]

3. lovely.

[MasonJar]

5. What else is new? In addition to Kerry/Edwards, innumerable

reps and senators were raped. We must have a paper trail.

[DELUSIONAL]

6. kick

[Pallas180]

7. This paragraph is really disgusting.

"But the really big deal is this....all of ES&S's touch screen machines contain modems, "allowing them to communicate—and be communicated with—while they are in operation," reports Bollyn. That communication capability includes satellites. "Even computers not connected to modems or an electronic network can still be manipulated offsite, not during the election, but certainly before or after," says voting systems expert Dr. Rebecca Mercuri."

[DELUSIONAL]

8. A caller on the Mike Web show -- Bev Harris was a guest

told of being in a Kikos (or some copy shop) -- and a rep for Diebold was in the store. The caller tried to talk to the rep -- but he was rude.

The point is that the caller had his computer and he was picking up a signal from the Diebold computer -- and Bev asked the caller to contact her ASAP -- that she was working on this issue.

So it sounds like we have an eye witness about the hacking potential -- I'm sure she will make good use of this tip from the caller.

[CAcyclist]

9. My Theory There's a basic 2:1 ratio for padding voted

They needed a sure thing and they needed to not have to spend much time
double-checking it.



If you look at the actual numbers of Bush's excess numbers 59.7 million in 2004 - 50.5
million in 2000 - that's 9.2 million voters. 6.1 million are white people and 3.1 million are
non-white. That means that Bush increased his minority vote by 69% which is bizarre -
but one has to figure that number out.(See my previous thread entitled Bush's Minority
Vote increased by 69%.)

Just looking at the exit polls, Bush's 12% minority share doesn't look that significant.

But if there wasn't a master code, then the chance of increasing the minority vote to
something that starts to really stand out increases dramatically because he had so few
minority voters to begin with.

So I think they had to make sure that the percent of white voters to
non-white voters was 2/3 - so if you add a few voters from a heavily minority district,
the code adds double that number of voters somewhere else in the system in a whiter
district. So that the "balance" is maintained.



Maybe I 'm way off base here, but that 2:1 white to non-white ratio really caught my
attention.

[noiretextatique]

12. these are those mythical evangelicals

that magically appeared in the OH totals. i think you have a very interesting theory there :thumbsup:
in spite of all the hoopla about the black vote, it appears * only got a 1-2% increase in black voters. and frankly...i'm a little suspicious of even that small increase.

[CAcyclist]

21. Thank you!

I think they have a computer model - basically a computer election game.

They had to have a sure thing so I am positive they used a program to test their theories prior to the election of what it would take to throw the vote .

That way, if there is one overriding program, then a little tweaking here and there would result in adjustments elsewhere to hide the changes - as I said, one minority vote flipped to Bush needs to be balanced by 2 white votes flipped to Bush.

If I am right and we can find that game, we have the smoking gun.

[noiretextatique]

22. i hope you are right...where would you look fot it?

it's probably in diebold's vault. perhaps we should look into speaking with some diebold employees.

[this_side_up]

10. the 2 small planes that

allegedly crashed - which companies did
they belong to? (I can't find anything when
I search)

That makes me wonder if those companies
were chosen to handle '04 and the other
2 for 06

[Carolab]

11. Here you go

Diebold COO Wes Vance dies in private plane crash (DBD)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/du...

<http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp... >
Diebold COO Wes Vance dies in private plane crash (DBD) By Michael Baron
Diebold (DBD) is saying Wes Vance, its chief operating officer, died in a tragic accident. Vance was piloting a plane that crashed near Columbus, Ohio, the company said. Walden O'Dell, the company's chairman, president and CEO, will assume the day-to-day operational responsibilities until a successor is named.


ChoicePoint Exec VP
Dan Rocco -- April 1, 2002 -- ChoicePoint VP
He died on April 1, 2002, in a plane crash in Gainesville, Georgia. He was an executive vice president at ChoicePoint, the firm that gained infamy with their faulty "felons" list supplied to Katherine Harris during the 2000 election in Florida. As a result of this list, thousands of voters (mostly African-American voters) were wrongly identified as felons and purged from the rolls.
<<http://www.bk2k.com/bushbodycount/stolen-election/bodie... >

[The Flaming Red Head]

13. bump

[robbedvoter]

14. And don't forget, this was only one way to cheat

Purging voter rolls, challenging, under-providing voting machines for dem precincts ....lots of people worked hard for their no bud contracts and tax cuts!

[Chelsea Patriot]

15. Kick!!!

[liberal_in_GA]

16. I just don't understand

how our voting process was allowed to be hijacked without so much as a peep of protest from either the "librul" media or any elected representatives. You best believe that this would not have happened had George Soros been gunning for no-bid contracts for newfangled voting machines.

:wtf:

[Lindsay]

18. Some Dems were on it.

Insufficient caffeine in the bloodstream so far today, so I can't for the life of me remember which Dem Rep was sponsoring a bill for voter verifiable paper receipts, but I know somebody did. The problem is that with Repug control, Dem bills don't get to the floor.

As for the corporate media...feh. Useless, Olbermann excepted.

Personally, I don't want to see any individual or company own the voting machines. Of course, given our current government, public ownership isn't any better, I suppose....

[liberal_in_GA]

19. I am still holding out slim hope

for the media, albeit foolishly, I suppose... Has Jon Stewart said anything about this? We should email him some of our fraud links.

[SmokingJacket]

20. Rush Holt.

He's also one of the guys joining Conyers to try and get congress to look investigate these fraud allegations.

[cthrumatrix]

17. kick....of course the media never brings this up

[sandboxface]

23. More:

In August, 2003, in a decidedly impolitic move, Walden O' Dell, CEO of Diebold, wrote a fundraising letter promising to "help deliver Ohio's electoral votes" to President Bush.

O'Dell's comments brought out of the shadows the company's history of staunchly supporting the Republican Party, and shed some light on the conflicts of interest within the DRE manufacturing industry as a whole.

Diebold and its executives have contributed some $409,170 to Republican candidates and the Republican National Committee since 2001, while contributing only $2,500 to Democrats in the same time frame. In June, after the donations came under scrutiny following the revelations of security flaws year, Diebold's board of directors banned further contributions by company executives.

http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/2004/NovSurprise.htm

Bob Urosevich runs the election division at Diebold. His brother, Todd Urosevich, is a top executive at ‘rival’ e-voting manufacturer ES&S.

"The four companies are interconnected; they are not four "competitors". Ahmanson has large stakes in ES&S, whose former CEO was Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. When Hagel ran for office, his own company counted the votes, and his victory was considered "an amazing upset". Hagel still has a million dollar stake in ES&S.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHI411B.html

[nikraye]

24. I tried to tell everyone...letter to officials dated Sept. 6, 2004

(originally posted to Randi Rhodes message board):

I wrote the following email to Bev Harris and cc'd to Kevin Shelley (Sec. of State, California) and Randi Rhodes (AAR) on SEPTEMBER 6, 2004. I also emailed a copy of this letter to local newspapers (SF Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News) trying to bring my concerns about voter fraud to the surface BEFORE the election, but received not one response. My concerns went unnoticed and unanswered. After experiencing complete apathy from friends, coworkers, news orgs, and my state's own elections officer (Kevin Shelley), I KNEW, without a doubt, BushCo would steal the 2004 election, just as he did in 2000, but with even GREATER MALFEASANCE than ever before. But only now are people finally taking notice...TOO LATE!

****************************

TO: Bev Harris, Investigative Reporter, www.blackboxvoting.org
CC: Randi Rhodes, www.airamericaradio.com
CC: Kevin Shelley, Secretary of State, California

Dear Ms. Harris,

First, I wish to thank you for the extraordinary work you've done in exposing the potential for voter fraud in the U.S. I, myself, have only just learned of this and, I don't mind adding, I am quite concerned about the enormous potential of a corrupt, manipulated election on November 2, 2004.

I've been reading (from your website and others) about the controversial paperless Diebold e-voting machines. I was happy to discover that Kevin Shelley, my state's Secretary of State, had banned Diebold's machines from several counties here in California, replacing them (at the cost of $4.2 million) with ES&S's machines instead. However, I have since found references implicating ES&S's machines in numerous "questionable" election outcomes. Further research led me to references connecting both Diebold and ES&S to ownership and/or direct ties to the radical Right and other Bush loyalists, such as Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, whose own 1996 primary and election upsets had been tied to e-voting machines designed, programmed, and manufactured by ES&S, a company for which Chuck Hagel served as CEO. One article states, "In 2002 Hagel won a landslide re-election bid with 83 % of the vote. Four out of five votes cast were counted by computer-controlled voting machines built by, programmed by, and with chips supplied by Hagel's former company."

The ties between Diebold and ES&S are such that it makes BOTH companies highly suspect: Both were founded and funded by the far Right. Moreover, "Bob Urosevich was the Programmer and CEO at AIS , before being replaced by Hagel. Bob now heads Diebold Election Systems and his brother Todd is a top executive at ES&S. Bob created Diebold's original electronic voting machine software. Thus, the brothers Urosevich, originally funded by the far Right, figure in the counting of approximately 80% of electronic voting in the United States."

Another article I found lists count after count of "glitches" and outright fraud (illegal use of modem during an election) involving these two e-voting machine manufacturers, 99% of said irregularities benefiting Republican candidates. Can this be just a coincidence? If it is, it's certainly an unbelievable one. Or is it possible the articles I'm finding on the Internet are grossly biased and are only reporting half the incidents, that there are just as many occurrences of irregularities which have benefited Democratic candidates, but that these are not getting their fair share of the spotlight? Regardless, as a progressive Democrat who is intensely vested in the outcome of the 2004 election, the picture I'm getting is that there is indeed a brewing conspiracy of election corruption being perpetrated upon the American people. I'm despairing that for November 2004 there is the real potential of a nationwide spread of the election fraud which we witnessed in 2000, one which resulted in the electoral college election of a candidate who LOST the popular vote.

As you have invested yourself so completely in this issue, I look to your expertise for some kind of assurance that my fear of such a conspiracy is unfounded, and that the ES&S machines Kevin Shelley has paid dearly for, are in fact trustworthy. Or, if this fear is merited, then what are the American people, the Democratic party, and election over-seers doing to prevent the fraudulent manipulation of electronic voting, such as was orchestrated by the Bush Sr. and Reagan administrations in Panama and the Philippines in the 1980s?

"Former CIA Station Chief John Stockwell writes that one of the favorite tactics of the CIA during the Reagan-Bush administration in the 1980s was to control countries by manipulating the election process...Documents illustrate that the Reagan and Bush administration supported computer manipulation in both Noriega's rise to power in Panama and in Marcos' attempt to retain power in the Philippines."

References:

1. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
2. http://www.peace-actionnm.org/issues/voting/problems.html
3. http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/9554813.htm

Sincerely,

Nikki Weidner
San Jose, CA