Edwards Wants Bush to Return Donations (Diebold)

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling on President Bush to return more than $100,000 donated to his campaign by a major manufacturer of voting machines, saying the relationship could damage confidence in elections.

Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, criticized the contributions by Walden O'Dell, head of Diebold Election Systems in a speech prepared for delivery Saturday to Florida Democrats at their annual meeting in Lake Buena Vista.

And he took a swipe at the touch screen voting machines made by Diebold, which some computer experts have questioned as lacking adequate security. Diebold officials have defended the security of their voting machines.

"We now have touch screen voting machines that some people think are just as bad as a butterfly ballot," Edwards said, referring to the confusing ballots that became notorious in the botched Florida election in 2000.

more.............

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-edwards-bush,0,731661.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[wryter2000]

1. Well done, Edwards!

Never happen, but Edwards has done a good job of rubbing W's face in it with this.

[xultar]

2. Hot Damn, Edwards has BIG'UNS! n/t

[Robbien]

3. So, is this the second candidate jumping on

the Diebold issue, or is he the third? All nine should have been all over this before now.

[Eloriel]

6. Third unless he's talked about it before

However, this is bolder and bigger thanwhat Dean has said --

HOWEVER, what Deanapparently has planned is an army of pollwatchers. So it's a toss-up. I'm thrilled when any of them talk about it.

Good for Edwards.

Eloriel

[Prodemsouth]

23. How will pollwatchers be able to tell voting fraud by touch screen voting?

n/t

[Just Me]

30. They gotta HAMMER this one over and over,...

,...and over again. This danger of vote manipulation has got to be hammered until it moves from short-term to long-term memory in folks minds. The Diebold issue must be satisfactorily examined and resolved. Otherwise,...we will all wonder if our votes every really count.

[blm]

4. Great...another aspect of BBV is amplified.

You're a GREAT guy, John Edwards.

[Old and In the Way]

5. That should give pause to everyone.

Are Republicans just plain stooopit? Are they too dumb to understand how people perceive this. Or is it a level of arrogance and hatred for our 2 party system that drives them to do this?


Sounds like our candidates are starting to "get it". It is in their best interests that they lead the majority of Americans in demanding reform to no ballot touchscreens.

[PurityOfEssence]

18. They want to run out the clock

The conservatives want to basically do a Florida on this issue: they want to stall and stall and stall and then claim that there's nothing that can be done. They'll selectively cave in to allow changes AFTER this election, pleading poverty, disruption and everything else.

Remember: if the right wins the next election, the country turns hard right for possibly ever; certainly the supreme court will be stacked, as will the judiciary, civil rights will be further curtailed, tort reform will save the monarchy of corporations, abortion will be outlawed, the draft will be reinstated, Syria will be invaded and Venezuela, Cuba, and a host of others will be on the butcher's block. They have to win because they have to win; that's why the struggle in '02 was so brutal.

[CaptainClark23]

7. Smooth move

I'm impressed.

Of course, they should all have been screaming it from the rooftops months ago, but maybe these Dems are growing some balls (so to speak).

[salinen]

9. Just wait till faux news

gets a hold of this info. * will be toast. When the president takes contributions from the maker of the voting machines, the nation is no longer a free nation.

[Eric J in MN]

8. That's great. John Edwards should be the nominee.

John Edwards has the populism which can excite people and win the election. He believes in civil liberties and wants to restore the inheritence tax.

Howard Dean is limited by his support for raising taxes on the middle class, and so I doubt he would win in the general election.

Wesley Clark could win in the general, but I don't like his civil liberties positions. Clark was a lobbyist for a company which wanted to predict whether airline passengers were hijackers based on their credit rating. He also wants to amend the Constitution to ban "flag desecration."

John Edwards for President.

http://www.johnedwards2004.com/home.asp

[Sparky McGruff]

19. I think a Edwards/Clark ticket would be unstoppable.

Edwards is smart as hell, has the "regular guy from a small town" card to play. Clark would sell the tough on national defense crowd. They would complement each other very well.

[Room101]

10. Hell Yeah Edwards !!!

You just won some brownie points with me!

[Cooley Hurd]

11. DieboldDieboldDieboldDiebold - let's keep that name in the news!

And SuperKudos to John Edwards! I want the name Diebold to be burned into the consciousness of every voting American!

If Diebold's the name you see, then vote absentee!!!

[chelaque liberal]

12. Excellent

The more it gets out there the better. There are still a lot of people who don't know what is going on, and I don't mean just people who get all of their news from the corporate media.

[absolutezero]

15. damn straight

and welcome to DU

:hi:

[0007]

13. Good for John Edwards, everyone shuld be knowledgeable,

about Diebold and the people that own and made 'em to work in their favor.

[librechik]

14. Yeah, and big money contributions from defense contractors

who dance jigs every day for Bush's "endless war" --give that money back too!

What other money should Bush return?

OURS from the tax cuts for millionaires that all the other taxpayers have to make up for!

Go Edwards! Diebold SUCKS!

[Melodybe]

20. I deeply encourage people to write to both Newsday and Edwards

to thank them for talking about Diebold. Honestly Diebold ADMITTED to telling people how to RIG ELECTIONS, they should be in jail. Although I am a big Dean supporter I just sent Edwards a nice letter that thanked him for talking about Diebold. We all should start writing more and more letters when ever the media starts doing the right thing. They will still be owned by the fat-cats but now they know we are watching THEM! We have the truth on our side and we won't be ignored forever.

[maxanne]

16. good work

John. :thumbsup:

We have to keep this topic out there on the table.

[goforit]

17. Way to start fighting like a man Edwards!!!

No more of this hogwash DLC stuff...."just being polite" eh?

[AP]

26. When hadn't he been "fighting like a man"?

[CalebHayes]

21. Hell YES

[AlFrankenFan]

22. Yay Edwards!

Unfortunately it won't take long for Bush* to raise it "legitimately" (sp?) through his many "supporters" to make up for it.

[Mechatanketra]

24. The heck with the donations ...

... what we really need is for him to send back the voting machines to Diebold.

[Kolesar]

25. This is a good tactic...kick

[grannylib]

27. Keep the pressure on! This issue needs to be huge and ongoing.

[sendero]

28. good work

Good job Edwards!

I've long believed that it will take a while to get the paper trail we really need. But in the meantime, pulling off voting fraud depends on nobody expecting it. It is going to be much harder to steal a vote than it has been, thanks to the efforts the BBV crowd and now Mr. Edwards.

[Dr Fate]

29. NICE- Edwards is a good man and a great DEM candidate!!!

!!!!

[Kelvin Mace]

31. The point that we must hammer home

over and over again is that it is improper for O'Dell to be donating money to ANY political candidate who may have his election decided by a Diebold machine. It is improper for Bush, or ANY political candidate to accept money from ANYONE involved in the mechanics of the election process.

David Allen
Publisher, CEO, Janitor
Plan Nine Publishing
http://www.plan9.org

[jokerman93]

32. I know Dennis K posted some of the Diebold Memos

on his website. It's so clear this isn't a Dem issue at all. It's a Democracy issue. I expect/hope we may be seeing the gloves coming off as more mainstream Dems begin to realize the deep doodoo we're in.

What about Clark? Has he addressed this yet? If not I'm as certain as can be it's coming up on his battle plan.

Basically, I don't care who the hell beats Bush in '04. We need to depose this fake administration. America as we know it (come to think of it -- the world) depends in many ways on us winning this one.