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Diebold to Pay $2.6M Due to Insecure Voting Machines
sunilk writes "In a short period, Diebold has been at the center of several problems. Now it seeks to settle the lawsuit filed against it by the State of California by paying $2.6 million. Settlement comes because of flaws in the Diebold systems that could compromise election results."
... that will just set the price of an election!
How the hell can you put a price on jeopardising one of our constitutional rights? These people broke the law in a big way and lied about it, and they're getting off with this slap on the wrist? People should be put in jail for this.
Disgusting.
How much is a secure, honest, fair election worth? 2.6 million? Thats a drop in the bucket.
Something to the effect of the vendors machines being overhauled at the expense of the vendor or removed permanently in the state seems a bit more fitting for this degree of failure.
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
Now it seeks to settle the lawsuit filed against it by the State of California by paying $2.6 million.
IMHO, this is California's fault for going with Diebold's systems despite being told well and truly before the elections that these voting machines were insecure. Why do they believe the critics now?
Anyways, I'll bet they still use electronic voting machines come next election.
So that's how much our the future of our nation is worth? Insecure voting machines that play a part in determining who is elected to office...and it's only worth $2.6 million? What a bunch of B.S., $2.6 million is nothing close to what they should pay, if you ask me.
And when do we get our votes back? This is crap. Thanks california for striking another blow for democracy. :P
we will end no whine before its time
When I buy a service that isn't delivered as advertised, I get a full refund.
I'm disappointed that California didn't pursue criminal charges. A civil suit may be sufficient to deal with honest mistakes, but if, as seems to be the case, Diebold repeatedly made changes to software after certification, that's a deliberate malfeasance. These people need to learn that elections are serious business. These aren't candy machines.
By the article, it says that Diebold "has also agreed to certain technology and reporting obligations that will provide election officials with a better understanding of how to use its voting machines." So it looks to me that they aren't going to fix the problems with the machines, just let people know how to use the voting machines. It would be nice if they actually fixed the machines and the security flaws...
They may or may not settle, but I don't see the point. Just moving a lump sum of money may serve as punishment / compensation, but doesn't do anything about the issues with these voting machines, does it? Better to have Diebold work on that. Or better yet, stop relying on electronic voting machines at all.
There are 4 boxes in defense of liberty... ah, you know the drill.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Didn't people say these things were insecure to begin with. Didn't those Diebold guys tell us there wasn't. Didn't California agree with them.
$2.6 million dollars in nothing for something on this scale. It seems like just enough to seem serious. I don't think I'm a conspiracy theorist, but there does seem to be some kind of agenda. Oh well.
Silence is golden... and duct tape is silver.
Indeed. If the machines were indeed flawed, and Bush "won" at 51%, then all states who used those damn machines should ALL hold another set of voting - maybe Bush SHOULDN'T still be in power after all.
I don't trush Bush, and I don't trust Microsoft. Funny how those TWO things were involved in this affair.
I think you need to switch those two...
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
It is indeed another resounding blow struck against democracy. For a nation-building nation that appears to be set on exporting democracy at gunpoint, one would think that its own state of democracy would be setting a better example.
Iraqi politicians should start taking Diebold management out to lunch, if they haven't done so already.
(As always, any loathing contained in this post is not directed at Americans in general. It is directed purely at the current administration, the neocons and all the moderate Republicans that sat back and let them and their christian fundamentalist armies take over a nation I used to admire.)
The biggest cost to Diebold is the bad press. Their customers are bureaucrats and politicians, who generally have their finger in the wind.
Unfortunately most of the focus appears to be to accuse Diebold of trying to steer the election toward the Republicans. While that would be a bad thing of awesome proportions, I think all the talk abou it misses the point.
The real issue is having an open, verifiable ballot box, so *no one* can abuse the ballot device to affect the results of an election.
Diebold wants a closed, "certified" ballot box. I don't think they want it that way to influence elections. I think they want it that way because they see secrecy as their best road to a profit. Never mind ensuring the correctness of their programs through open review; that would cost them a business advantage (they think).
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
Right you are, we won't actually know. Oregon may be more or less safe, but there are problems even in reasonably stable Washington state. 700 votes were mistakenly marked invalid, and state judges have chosen to block those votes from being counted. So add Washington to the list of problem states.
...for all the "found" ballots in King Country for the Democrat candidate.
Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after you!
Funny, I thought Diebold machines were used in more states.
Given recent history - Enron, Global Crossing, Diebold, Microsoft, Haliburton - I think we should implement a corporate death penalty for certain corporate crimes (esp e.g. Diebold and Haliburton - both arguably guilty of treason).
"Settlements" are bullshit. The corp pays to a set of politicians some money - those same polititicians that Diebold was cnotracted to install in office? Sounds a lot more like a kick-back than a settlement.
It's interesting that this California peice made the news - a place where apparently the politicos are willing to let Diebold settle. The situation in certain other states - Ohio, Georgia, Florida, for instance - is indicative of outright criminal activity for which the company should be brought up on charges. Treason is not to strong a word.
In order for that to work, though, there would have to be a mechanism to impose a sentence appropriate to the crime upon the corporation. Maybe seizure of assets, nullification of incorporation status, revocation of licenses. The corporate officers should also be charged and incarcerated, banned from participating in corporations or sitting on boards for some period of time.
In a case like Diebold, the siezed assets would have to be distrubuted to someone besides the politicians who paid Diebold (with public funds) to put them in office - perhaps the money could be used to finance eclections, pay for audits and recounts, etc.
"The Internet is made of cats."
No, it is NOT clear that "the voters overwhelmingly chose George W. Bush".
...and the majority of Americans are too fat, happy, lazy and stupid to care.
There is an extensive amount of evidence that the Bush Administration stole their 2nd election in a row. (Voters in Florida in 2000 overwhelmingly preferred Gore.)
Exit polls don't lie.
This time, the voters of Florida AND Ohio preferred John Kerry, but the Bush Administration succeeded not only in ensuring there would be no evidence, but controlling the media and therefore the spin.
Right-wing evangelical christian fanatics, working in coalition with Corporate America have effectively staged a coup -- an electronic coup -- and grabbed control of America.
Now they can destroy social programs, the environment, public education, implement mandatory military service, and post the 10 commandments in government buildings. God Bless Amerika! It's like the Third Reich and KKK have risen from the dead.
When I look at the fundamentals of the Diebold design, I can't see any fundamental purpose of the design of these machines other than to facilitate fraud. No strong authentication. No basic mean of tracking tampering. Closed source. No paper trail. Even places like India and Bulgaria allegedly have more secure voting machines. What does it say about the Democrats that they would also something like this to pass through unchallenged? I think part of it was that there just wasn't any decent technical review here. All the Diebold folks had to do is throw some money around.
I know you are kidding but it's no joking matter.
America is a country where anything and everything is for sale. In America you can buy a kidney, you can buy a vote, you can buy a womb if you don't want to carry your own child, you can even buy a child, heck you can have children imported from other parts of the world.
All perfectly legal.
Americans used to think that it would be an abomination to buy and sell children, organs, or rent space in a woman's womb for 9 months but not anymore.
It's funny but sick too.
evil is as evil does
...when corporaitions are granted the same constitutional rights as an individual, yet face no signifigant consequences let alone anything equal to the imprisonment of an individual.
We'd live in quite a different world if corporations were held to the same standard of punishment as the individual. Say, the inability to keep their profits for 25 to life. Even better, if the major shareholders faced personal fines or imprisonment for the actions of their companies.
Corporations are the cause of everything wrong in this country. Political coruption, the war machine, polution, ad creep, health care, our health problems, blah blah blah. What we really need is the ability to rescind corporate charters.
k:pThis too, will end.
Yeah, Carter was not what you would call an amazing (or popular) president. However, that's exactly why I have more respect for Mr. Carter than for almost any other president. Ah well, it seems that engineers just weren't made for high office. :-)
I feel the need to respond to this comment and all others who seem to say that it is wrong for anyone to vote with their religion.
What I keep hearing is that all those people who voted for Bush on election day based on their religious beliefs are idiots and stupid and in some cases I hear that they don't even deserve their vote/life(yes I have heard people advocate death for the "Moral Majority"). In anycase, I was watching SNL tonight and there was this lovely skit/cartoon where Santa descided that he would no longer deliver presents to the "Red States" because they were now part of "DumbAssinstan" or somesuch. It ended with a little girl calling Santa a bigot because he was saying that all these people were idiots just cause they let a little thing like religion influence them. She also said that Santa was becoming the very thing that he hated. I must say that I love the truth of satire.
Now, just in case I have not yet made my point, let me just make a few more observations. Everyone who sits there and says that the religious right is automatically stupid and should not be allowed to vote is basically saying that someone is automatically stupid and should be disallowed the right to vote because of their skin color, because they hold a certain job, or because they happen to read slashdot(well this last one might be true). Democracy is about the citizens taking and _ALL_ their beliefs and trying to form a moderate goverment that is as best as it can be for entire country. Now some may believe that the current goverment is not best or optimal or whatever. The majority of the nation has spoken and there must be a reason for it. Now it may be through voter fraud, but from talking to actual people I can tell you there is a reason that the Democratic party and the majority of the "left" is completely missing. Stop making excuses and figure out why a nation would vote for someone they know lied to them outright(Well I think we did it twice, Clinton and Bush but thats irrelavant).
For those still hung up on all the alleged voter fraud, let me leave this last nugget of truth with you. The Democratic party has a much longer and more worrisome record of voter fraud and all out vote buying than the Republican party ever could. In West Virginia there is a saying that goes something like this, "When I die, bury me in Logan County so even after I am dead I can still vote." Now the funny thing is, historically the Democrats have always done better amoung the dead getting nearly 100% of their vote. So isn't all of this a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black?
I personally think both parties are dirty and need to be destroyed. A little revolt now and again can be healthy. Also don't dilute yourself by thinking that the parties are all that different, they both have the same corpreate masters.
"We Don't Need No Truthless Heros!" - Project 86
... that we have actually PRIVATIZED THE VOTE.
Just let that sink in for a few minutes. We took the single most important tool of citizenship... and SOLD IT.
What the fuck is wrong with our country?
+++ATH0
A balanced education would be, here's all the evidence supporting the theory of evolution for which intelligent design/creation's explanation is "we can't completely understand it yet so God must have done it". Thank goodness Bohr, Schroedinger, Einstein and the rest didn't take that attitude when it came to quantum mechanics. This isn't science and nobody with any serious training in the scientific method could claim it is. If you want to teach it in Sunday school, more power to you. If you try to teach it as part of a science curriculum in a public school then you have a state promoting a religion. The wolf's big eyes and teeth are very visible under that sheep's clothing.
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
What I keep hearing is that all those people who voted for Bush on election day based on their religious beliefs are idiots and stupid and in some cases I hear that they don't even deserve their vote
I have no problems with people voting based on their religious beliefs as long as they also take everything else into consideration (why vote for a warmonger just because he claims to have the same religious beliefs as you?)
The thing that really wound me up though was one of the TV interviews I saw with a Bush supporter - he claimed that "religious people always make better decisions than non-religious people". How arrogant is that? I'd argue that neither the religious or non-religious sides are any better qualified than eachother to make decisions.
Of course, going into a populated building with a few kilos of high explosive strapped to you and blowing up everyone who has different beliefs than you is obviously a "better" decision - most wars are about religion too.
Infact, it could be argued that atheists might take war and death more seriously than people who belief in an afterlife because in the eyes of aetheists when you kill someone you really are killing someone, not just sending them to an afterlife.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
by settling out of court, there are no decisions and no "findings of fact", thus, it sets no precident that can be used to justify furthur lawsuits and/or corrections in their systems.
its just money, and that's the easy part.
bleh.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
with your rebuttal is that you fail to recognize that the source code for Diebold's voting machines has *not* been given governmental review of any kind. Diebold showed the government a black box and said, "look! electronic voting!" and the government bought it, no questions asked about the internal workings because the internal workings were a "trade secret."
You can't. Make the vote. A trade secret.
The internal workings of mechanical voting machines, at least, are well-documented and understood, at least according to my stepfather who works in the NYC Board of Elections.
+++ATH0