Reply #11: Well, there's the voting machine co (ES&S) connection to Sen. Chuck Hagel.

[FreepFryer]

From the wikipedia article at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._presidential_election_controversy%2C_voting_machines#Specific_issues_related_to_voting_machine_companies

As noted elsewhere (Sources: http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=9751&fcategory_desc=Top%20Stories%20Ignored%20By%20U.S.%20Media , http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=683 , http://www.ecotalk.org/UrosevichBrothers.htm , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._presidential_election_controversy%2C_voting_machines#Specific_issues_relating_to_ES.26S_machines_and_political_links

Chuck Hagel, the previous chairman of ES&S, another major manufacturer of voting machines and still a $1m stock-holder in McCarthy & Co which owns a quarter of ES&S ( http://www.mccarthygroupinc.com/investments.asp ), became a Republican candidate. Hagel's Democratic opponent made a formal protest to the state of Nebraska over the conflict of interest. Hagel had significant AIS holdings when the company counted the votes for his surprise election victory in 1996. Hagel has been scrutinized by the Senate Ethics Committee over his investments in the McCarthy Group. ES&S, which counted 80% ( http://www.opednews.com/fitrakis032204_diebold.htm ) of the votes when Hagel was elected in 1996 and re-elected in 2002, is a subsidiary of the McCarthy Group, according to The Hill. ( http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=24 , http://www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx )

When Hagel stepped down as head of this company to compete for the Senate, he became "...the first Republican in 24 years to win a Senate seat in Nebraska, nearly all on unauditable machines he had just sold the state ... including many largely black communities that had never before voted Republican". (Source http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1104-38.htm )

Hagel also was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee, and was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates. ( http://nastyboys.blogspot.com/2004/12/20-amazing-facts-about-voting-in-usa.html )

Jeb Bush's first choice as running mate in 1998 was Sandra Mortham, a paid lobbyist for ES&S who received a commission for every county that bought its touch-screen machines. The Hill's revelations of Hagel's conflict of interest was disturbing enough to cause Jan Baran, one of the most powerful Republican lawyers in Washington D.C., and Lou Ann Linehan, Senator Chuck Hagel's Chief of Staff, to walk into The Hill's offices to "discuss" the story. "According to the author of the article, Alex Bolton, nothing similar had happened in the three-and-a-half years he's worked for the paper." ( http://americanassembler.com/issues/democracy/docs/how_gw_won_2004.html )