Diebold Pulls out of North Carolina!

[KoKo]

Just got the news and will post when I have the press release...but all those who worked on the Verified Paper Ballot Bill in NC deserve a big Hand Clap for this! And the Electronic Freedom Foundation who provided legal support and local grassroots bi-partisan and partisan activists who worked so hard on this!

Many DU'ers deserve thanks for this, too. BUT...we need to be vigilant because we've got Keith Long of Georgia, Maryland and Ohio whose our new State Board of Elections Project Manager for New Machines. He seems to travel from state to state ....implementing.

Anyway...we will be vigilant...but it's good news! Thought you all would like to know!

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[Rainscents]

1. WOW, great news!!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Rainscents]

2. Put this on general disgussion.

[Kelvin Mace]

3. This is confirmed, I had it from three sources

and just got off the phone with a reporter who has seen the letter.

Diebold is trying to portray this as a punitive move, to punish us for our law. As Sequoia has also dropped out, this leave only ES&S. Word is that Diebold was trying to get ES&S to also drop out. The idea that with no vendors, we would have to scrap our law and beg them to come back.

David Allen
www.blackboxvoting.com

[Wilms]

6. No Problem. Here ya go...

[Kelvin Mace]

10. Work for me

[Benhurst]

9. How about inviting NONE of them back. Let's do it the old fashioned

(and better) way: paper ballots!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

4. Oh, that's GREAT!!!

Many kudos to y'all.

EXCELLENT!

It's a start ...................

[The Witch]

5. K&R for your hard work, congratulations

:toast:

[stepnw1f]

7. Another Victory!!!!

Congrats!!!!!!!

[Quakerfriend]

8. This is a wonderful XMas present! Thx for all you've done

to help make it happen!!

[katinmn]

11. Congratulations, NC!

Now this is the kind of wave I like to see.

[garybeck]

12. is this related to the EFF lawsuit?

I'm wondering if they did this in order to end the lawsuit against them in NC?

Electronic Frontier Foundation suing Diebold for evading transparency law in NC
Diebold is facing a lawsuit regarding a transparency law in North Carolina. A court was requiring Diebold to open the source code for their voting machines so that it could be reviewed by experts. The law applied to all similar companies that supply software to the state. Diebold then attempted to go around the ruling and get their voting machines approved through the legislature. The lawsuit alleges they illegally evaded the court ruling.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1118-04.htm

[Wilms]

13. It's tangentially related.

Though that lawsuit was tossed by a judge yesterday.

That's what makes this latest announcement a surprise to me.

December 22, 2005

Voting machine certifications upheld by court

By Mark Binker
Staff Writer

RALEIGH — State election officials acted properly when they certified two voting machine vendors to sell their products in North Carolina, Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand ruled Wednesday.

Rand dismissed a lawsuit brought on behalf of Joyce McCloy, a Winston-Salem woman who has lobbied for stricter controls on the voting machine industry. McCloy was backed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a California group whose lawyers argued on her behalf.

The case concerns a newly passed law that sets out the requirements for voting machines in North Carolina. As of Jan. 1, all the equipment used by counties through this year’s elections will become illegal.

snip

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051222/NEWSREC0101/512220315

[Kelvin Mace]

19. Nope

but related. Diebold is blaming it on the court rulings, but it comes down to they are afraid of NC's law because it has criminal penalties.

[emlev]

14. Sounds great if all is as reported, congrats to all

It seems to me that if ES&S is suddenly going to get way more "market share" than predicted, they may fail to deliver on all the new contracts because of lack of capacity, and drown in a stew of their own making. Oh, wouldn't it be nice...

[liam_laddie]

15. NC BoE "project manager?"

Anybody have links about this guy Keith Long? In Hamilton County OH the
BoE has opted for ES&S op-scan system. Wanna check out the sales process....
Thanks, great news from NC, but as KoKo01 says...eternal vigilance! :toast:

[Wilms]

18. This came up a while ago.

MelissaB posted a url with his name address, etc.

So I googled that web address and found his calendar for May.

http://pmpplus.com

Some of the calendar entries have icons in the lower right corner. Click them for detail, ie: the Accenture presentation.


FVRS could be an acronym for this stuff

http://www.google.com/search?hs=fIK&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=fvrs+vote&btnG=Search


Now, what's up with this Royce DeBow guy listed on the calendar. Seems a rabid one. But in Wisconsin.

http://www.google.com/search?q=+%22Royce+DeBow%22+election&num=100&hl=en&hs=FSK&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&as_qdr=all&filter=0

(I have more links on him)

So, what does Long and/or NC have to do with Accenture?

In April Wisconsin got sued over a contract it signed with Accenture to do the voter database part of HAVA. Royce is in Wisconsin. Don't know if it's anything


Melissa found some more stuff...

Mr. Keith Long also lists on his resume the installation of Diebold machines in Maryland:
Diebold Admits Vote Software Used in Maryland Primaries Did Not Meet Fed Standards ... and decertified Diebold machines in four California counties. ...
www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=2392


Nov 10, 2005 "Keith Long's Excellent Adventures in Georgia" -- (in 2002)

Read how Mr. Long's installation of 22,000 machines in Georgia was not the glowing
success Mr. Long claims....

This more detailed (but incomplete) list of problems documents even more issues that would make the average voter question the claim that Mr. Long had "successfully installed 22,000 voting machines in the State of Georgia on time and under budget".

• Evidence that the systems were certified to state and national standards was absent
• Voter's selection of candidates improperly reflected on summary screen
• Faulty design of system led to voters trying to stick access cards (their ballot) into an "inappropriate location" (Must. Resist. Obvious. Smartass. Comment)
• Inadequate and innacurate training manuals
• Inadequate training of support staff
• Preparation and printing of absentee ballots "deficient"
• "Training on safeguards to prevent and detect tampering or theft not provided"(And these are the people who call me a a crank for worrying about security)
• Battery backup up time promised: 7 hours. Actual time: 4-6
• Five county servers failed prior to election day, ongoing problems after election day
• Diebold staff providing training were not adequately trained themselves
• Tech support vanished after election day leaving post-election tasks uncompleted
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=356

And this...

December 02, 2005
North Carolina Illegally Certifies Diebold E-voting System
Board of Elections Ignores Rules to Escrow Code, Identify Programmers

In all, three companies were certified for e-voting in North Carolina: Diebold, Sequoia Voting Systems, and Election Systems & Software. However, Keith Long, an advisor to the Board of Elections who was formerly employed by both Diebold and Sequoia, has said that "none of them" could meet the statutory requirement to place their system code in escrow. Instead of rejecting all applications and issuing a new call for bids as required by law, the Board chose to approve all of the applicants.

Link: http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_12.php

Let me know if that helps.

[mom cat]

16. Great work!

:yourock:

[KoKo]

17. We still have a ways to go...they could "Countersue" us...but we are

organized...so ready to deal with whatever they throw at us.

It's really good to "savor the moment" though! :-)'s

[hedda_foil]

20. All the documents and a new story are up at VoteTrustUSA

Check it out! Front and center on the home page http://www.votetrustusa.org

permanent link: http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=618&Itemid=30