Diebold may attempt to "hide the body" in restructuring plans...Bradblog

[marions ghost]

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002390.htm

From Bradblog:
Diebold May Be Getting Out of Election Business, According to Updated AP Story...

As we pointed out in our story on Diebold yesterday, AP ran a short piece including an interview with new CEO Tom Swidarski revealing indications that he seems to be looking to unload the beleaguered Diebold Elections Division as part of his $100 million "restructuring plan" as recently promised to share holders.

Shortly after our post about that article, AP reissued the same article, but with an additional quote from Swidarski, a bit more background on Diebold's many woes (former CEO Walden O'Dell's promise to deliver the state of Ohio to Bush, etc.) and a new headline: "Diebold chief says fate of e-voting unit under review". Looks like they changed their lede after they realized what Swidarski was actually signaling in his comments, which -- in the new piece -- also includes these two quotes:

NORTH CANTON, Ohio (AP) - Diebold Inc.'s new chief executive, determined to cut $100 million in costs over three years, said he is reviewing whether the company should continue investing in its embattled electronic voting business. "There's pieces and aspects of each of our businesses that I'm going to be looking at with a very critical eye in terms of what the future holds for us," Swidarski said in his first media interview since taking over in December the company best known for its automatic teller machines and security systems.

(more at link)

[Botany]

1. Diebold I am sure got paid big time but ....

..... off the books. Cayman Islands or Zurich bank accounts?

Always remember 1 diebold machine in Volusia County, Florida gave Al Gore a
negative 16,000 votes just as ABC, CBS, NBC, & CNN all called the state for Gore.

[marions ghost]

5. yeah

who really thinks Diebold's going to suffer in a big way? Early indicators are that Diebold stock may actually rebound substantially when they divest themselves of the voting machine division. Meanwhile they and their cronies got what they wanted --the Neocon Juggernaut--for 8 devastating years. Meanwhile ES & S and Sequoia are still around to provide future election fixes and over half the country has bought into auditless DREs.

[marions ghost]

2. Also see this...

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/06/02/int06005.html

Feb 9 Buzzflash interview with Mark Crispin Miller on the subject:

"...It’s been a major struggle nationwide, with lots of grass-roots resistance to the spread or imposition of the DRE machines. In some states, the movements have successfully challenged the deadline, arguing correctly that the voting process is far too important for the people to be hustled into making any binding choices by some arbitrary date. In Connecticut, the secretary of state recently put off the purchase of any new machines for a whole year, and there’s a fierce campaign to do the same in Pennsylvania. Bush’s “Justice Department” now intends to sue New York for noncompliance with HAVA, because New Yorkers won’t be hurried into the machines. The Busheviks have always rushed the process, so as to buffalo us all into submission. That’s not only how they forced the passage of the Patriot Act and dragged us into war. It’s also how they got themselves “elected.” Remember how they kept on bellowing for an immediate surrender by Al Gore throughout the post-election stand-off in 2000?

By insisting on the HAVA deadline as if it were God’s law, they’re doing the same thing.
It’s a giant hustle. BushCo has to push us into using these machines, as no well-informed believer in democracy would ever do voluntarily. According to a recent Zogby poll commissioned by Op-Ed News, over 80% of the American people want to return to paper ballots."
(more at link)

[texpatriot2004]

3. Thanks Brad. Live Free or Diebold! nm

[marions ghost]

4. here is a good website for info

about Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia (which count 80% of the votes):

http://www.whoscounting.net/TheCompanies.htm

"There are four Big Daddies in the manufacture of our Election equipment in America:
Diebold Election Systems, E.S.&S., Sequoia Voting Systems, and Triad.

Diebold and ES&S together count 80% of our electronic vote. ES&S is the number one with two-thirds of the vote counting software and the biggest supplier of touch screen machines. Sequoia - with one-third of the voting machines on the market - is usually regarded as number two. Or Diebold. Depends who you ask. There is cloaked secrecy surrounding ownership and details about the companies, but investigative research scraping the tip of the iceberg has discovered enough to set anyone’s hair on fire..."

(much more at link)

[hedda_foil]

6. The info on that link is out of date.

It's historically accurate, but close to three years old ... pre HAVA implementation.

[marions ghost]

7. thank you

well, it still gives an overview. These companies do everything they can to hide information about them. Is there a more recent summary do u know?

If Diebold eliminates their voting machine division, who will pick up the slack? Since they service the machines, are the states that bought heavily into Diebold going to experience even more troubles because of the divestiture?