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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.
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.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I think you need to switch those two...
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
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.
...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
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