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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.
When the San Diego Registrar of Voters implemented the Diebold system, they went ahead and got rid of thousands of these little plastic voting booths we used to use. Also, the stylus voting equipment is gone -- all replaced by shiny new touchscreen voting equipment.
Come election day, half of the machines booted into Windows CE Explorer instead of the voting software... whoops
So now, the hardware is being re-certified, the old voting equipment is gone, and San Diego is using (Diebold Manufactured) optical scanners for voting on a temporary basis.
If these issues (and expenses) have been present in other counties of California, I fail to see how 2.6mil is a decent settlement. Sorry.
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.
Huh.....I guess many can buy everything.
Well if democracy costs $2.6 million, how much for a quasi-constitutional theocracy?
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.
How about this, why don't you Californians put together an initiative for the 2006 ballot making the use of Diebold voting machines in CA elections illegal? ...just a thought.
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
30 percent of our national vote was cast on non-voter-verified electronic voting machines. Ohio also was at about 30 percent.
Realistically we will never know who exactly was elected this year and that's a big problem.
Until we can address the voting machine issue proper (with voter-verified votes at a minimum) Americans have lost their democracy for all intents and purposes.
Interestingly the only state that got this right was frickin Nevada. They did use the machines, but insisted that they produce voter-verified paper trails.
The rest of the nation could actually learn a thing or two from Nevada of all places.
In addition to all of that, what I find most hard to swallow is the lack of action on the part of our elected officials to avoid this mess. Election supervisors have known for years literally and bought the machines anyway.
This whole mess is a crime against the American People. People should be in jail over this. We send people away for far less (like duping a movie).
Sorry for the rant, but this issue bothers me more than any other because I cannot trust our national election. Even though I live in a state (Oregon) with a pretty solid voting system, my solid vote means nothing in light of Florida and Ohio both with significant election irregularities.
I am not convinced we actually chose our President this year. Americans should be just a bit more upset about that than they are. We get press reports on the Ukraine yet we see almost nothing about our own failed election.
Finally, this is not about who won or lost. It's that we will never actually know...
Blogging because I can...
I think you need to switch those two...
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
...this is what I want:
I want an amendment to the state constitution requiring all methods of voting to have a verifiable audit trail.
I want this proposed settlement to cover the cost of implementing a verifiable audit trail in the counties that Diebold shafted. Including replacing defective machines. They broke our democracy, they're gonna pay to fix it.
That's what I want the pointy end of this lawsuit to do: patch the electronic voter fraud exploit. This is a non-partisan goal. America depends on election integrity.
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 price of this election now includes perhaps $2.6M in Diebold settlement, and the price of installing Gov. Schwarzenegger (in another rigged election), to OK it. With Bush raising well over $200M to win, and in control of something like $10T in debt over the next 10 years, the election is cheap. California can just take that $2.6M instead of the $8B that Schwarzenegger won't be suing to get from Enron in CA overcharges.
--
make install -not war
For a little fun, see exactly where a little Diebold campaign money goes:
/.'ers, is just the tip of the iceberg.
from the public record...
Crowther, John Michael Mr.
8/27/2003 $2,000.00
Canton, OH 44708
Diebold Inc. -[Contribution]
BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC
D' Amico, Thomas R. Mr.
9/3/2003 $2,000.00
Canton, OH 44718
Diebold Inc. -[Contribution]
BUSH-CHENEY '04 INC
and that
Never mind that the Carter Center, which supervises elections around the world, considers our systems fubar.
And yet I do love America still. Curious indeed.
befuddled (noun) 1. Unable to create a pithy sig
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.
The biggest and best democracy in the universe has no idea if their last election is valid. Hmmm.
1. The United Nations offer a service that may be useful. There a many satisfied clients. Get the UN election observers in.
2. Swallow some of that arrogant pride and ask some of the other democacies how they do it. Most of them manage to poll their entire country (compulsory voting) with little confusion or uncertainty and even do it within the hours of 9 to 5.
Idea !
Subcontract your elections out to experts. Any of the European Union countries, Australia, New Zealand.. They can do it for you.
...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!
The same day the settlement was announce the change in stock price alone was several fold the vlaue of the settlement. It's a crock. The value of the trial and the evidence discovery value would have grossly exceeded any cash value to the state of CA. shame on them for settleing.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The problem is not with crappy software or rigged machines. The problem we face is that, when a bunch of American voters stood up and protested that they were too stupid to use paper ballots properly, we tried to come up with a pre-school level voting machine instead of saying, "Okay, some people really ARE too stupid to vote."
"Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
The real fun begins when Disney sues to have some of it's people put in place as president instead of mickey mouse, who was unavailable at the time.
SAILING MISHAP
When you see the light in the dead of the night. Think of how much good that $20 does you... before the 300 megaton shockwave hits... China and Russia are rearming becuase of our "cowboy politics"
I propose a new moderation:
-1, Grumpy, Sarcastic, and No Sense of Humor due to Lack of Caffeine, Girls, and/or Sunlight
=]
Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
I'm a UK citizen and was recently alarmed to find that my vote in the last election was not counted. On further investigation I find that I'm actually not allowed to vote at all! I don't understand, George W Bush took my country to war and for some reason I'm unable to vote him out of office. Can anyone explain this to me?
In regard to the topic: the idea of speeding up so called 'antiquated' voting systems with modern technology is clearly flawed. Speed up the voting = speed up the voting fraud. Voting should be something that is as slow and painful as the act of being governed itself. But then that doesn't make for good tv.
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."
Got bored over the summer and found this document which shows how to get past diebold's password "security" on the counting software and made a video on how I did it. It is beyond silly how easy this is.
-Mike
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
My brother-in-law Chad is grateful there were no jokes at his expense this time around. We couldn't decide if he was a pregnant Chad, a swinging door Chad, or a dangling Chad. Only my sister would know that one. Well, all I can say is DieBold,Die!
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
...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.
Isn't that less than one cent for every U.S. citizen they screwed?
Everyone talks about how horribly insecure the touchscreens are.
But in a lot of counties that didn't use them, the results from things like optical scanners were still stored and calculated using GEMS. Which is not too secure.
Read that, and then read this.
The problems weren't with touchscreens. They were with GEMS, though. But whoever hacked Florida knew enough to not mess with touchscreens: they went right to the source, and that's also why it wasn't spotted.
And we've all seen this, about the Democrats trying to not let Diebold supply the voting machines to Ohio, after their CEO stated that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year"?
I'm still confused as to why no one (in mainstream America) seems to care at all. There was blatant fraud going on, particularly in Florida counties.
________________________________________________
suwain_2
You really think we get to choose our own brand of toothpaste ?? :)
Elections here use big mark-sense ballots, which are scanned when they go into the locked ballot box. You mark them with a felt-tip marker, using big marks that are unambiguous. They're counted automatically, but can easily be recounted manually if necessary. Any single ballot box can be recounted and verified against the scanner results for that box, so it's easy to check the accuracy of the system.
Here's his take on Diebold:
No ambiguity there.
Slocum has an RSS feed for election issues.
... 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
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
the people that originally brought the suit are not at all happy with the settlement and are trying to fight it. the diebold press release about the supposedly court-approved settlement came out of the blue and caught them off guard.
b oard.cgi?az=show_thread&omm=0&om=50&forum=DCForumI D4408):
there was a judge looking into the settlement... let's see what happens.
this is from a 12/14 post from the lawyer involved (http://www.blackboxvoting.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dc
===
From: JimMarch
"Heads up, y'all: the Alameda lawsuit has developments!"
To catch y'all up:
Last October elections lawyer Lowell Finley came to me with the idea of making Diebold give a refund for junk voting machines based on laws regarding defrauding the gov't when making sales. Electronic voting law is new and poorly developed; contractor fraud law is MUCH older and much stronger.
I said I'd do it as long as Bev was a plaintiff too.
We filed the suit "under seal" (per the rules) in Alameda County Superior Court in November of '03. The California Attorney General (AG)'s office extended the seal several times while deciding whether or not to "join in", finally doing so Sept. of '04.
About a month ago, the AG's office announced a "proposed settlement" with Diebold, for peanuts. They claimed total damages of $2.6mil and offered Bev and I $76k a piece so long as we didn't complain about this "sweetheart deal", the announcement of which caused Diebold's stock to bump up by over $42mil the next day alone. We were told that any attempt to derail the "proposed settlement" would lead to the AG's office arguing that Bev and I should get nada.
We had already decided to fight this thing regardless, even if it meant colliding with the state's top lawyer. We don't have "veto power" over the proposed settlement, but we do get the right to speak against it before the judge. We assumed that would be a brutal fight with long odds.
But then a funny thing happened.
Alameda County assigned an unusual judge. They pulled the former head of the entire county court system out of retirement, a guy name of William McKinstry. Our sources so far say he's good. And with no other cases on his docket, he seems to be paying attention to what's going on...before we even got a chance to file our opposition data, he put out a set of questions to all the lawyers involved that shows...well, he's deep into "smells a rat mode". Check out what he wrote, verbatim:
http://www.equalccw.com/judgesmellsarat.pdf
Note that the "Qui Tams" is basically Latin for "whistleblowers" - Bev and I.
This document is unbelievably good. We not only have a chance here, the judge is already questioning what's up.
Folks, if we can derail this "proposed settlement", Diebold is in deep kimchee. They either have to come up with a lot more money, or face discovery which is gonna be brutal considering they've now admitted ownership of the 15,000 or so internal memos in the Federal case recently won by Indymedia and EFF. Between that and the other bodies buried which Bev and I know about, discovery will be "anal probe level sans lube" }>. They'll do *anything* to avoid that, possibly right up to quitting the elections biz.
Oh yeah. Hell yeah.
Jim March
http://www.equalccw.com/voteprar.html
===
his 12/17 post in the same thread said: "Actions are being taken. Won't have a real report until Monday at the earliest, maybe longer. But yeah, we haven't given up...be stupid to do so with the judge asking those questions."
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