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Diebold Rebrands What No One Wants
Irvu writes "Diebold has apparently failed in their bid to sell their tainted elections systems unit. Unable to find a buyer the CEO of Diebold promised that the system will be run more 'openly and independently.' To prove that they are serious, they renamed it. Diebold Election Systems is now Premiere Election Solutions. They still sell GEMS, AccuVote OS and the ever-unpopular AccuVote-TSX which performed so disastrously in California's Top-to-Bottom Review under the same names. Apparently their rebranding effort only goes so far."
When your ATM gets scammed: All you lose is money.
When your voting system gets scammed: You lose your rights.
With a bank, if you get the numbers wrong, you lose that bank as a client FOREVER.
With an election, if you get the number wrong, you have a politician who will be your friend for life.
Think about it. They can handle billions of dollars, but they can't keep a million votes straight? At some point you realize that it isn't incompetence. It's their goal.
Because the money is in making it NOT work right.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
I don't really know how to respond to this, other than that I am disappointed for your lack of open-mindedness towards voting machines. Electronic voting technology is an active area of research: See http://accurate-voting.org/ for one example. Are voting machines fit for general use now? Absolutely not. But they continue to get better, as more and more research is being devoted to this hot topic.
All of the issues that you discussed can be subverted with better software, and more secure hardware. For instance, many people have suggested the use of TPM chips in voting machines to attempt to prevent software tampering. Teams of experts can validate source code and prove that it does what it's supposed to - I understand that you'd like to be able to validate it yourself, but the more open the source is, the more people that can look at it and can raise a red flag if something is wrong.
It's a shame that so many counties have poured money into machines like the flawed Diebold and iVotronic systems, because it means we may not see upgrades to more secure, and accurate systems for some time. However, pen and paper has its flaws as well. Voting machines have a lot of potential to fix the problems with both pen and paper, and the machines used today. What we need from the Government is more attention and action to these problems - audits and source code reviews should not be simply passed on as what seems to be happening in Sarasota, FL. What we need from members of the public, like yourself, is to not turn a blind eye to the possibilities, but to believe that researchers are doing their best to bring more secure voting machines to use.
This was not a strategy to get the voting machines back into play in the places which rejected them. Diebold is a very old company going back into the 19th century, and was until relatively recently a very well established and trusted name in security equipment. The Diebold Elections Systems division has not only failed to produce reliable products, but has garnered enormous bad press which has reflected extremely negatively upon that name. Regardless of what their true motives are with Diebold Election Systems, I think everyone can see why any rational executive at Diebold would see the need to protect the Diebold name. A good name is one of the greatest assets a company in any industry can have, and especially so in security, where trust comes grudgingly. If Diebold seems incompetent, possibly malicious, with its election systems, why would you, the bank manager, trust them to build your ATM machines?
Calling them Premier Election Systems does not undo the damage that's been done, but it does help deflect future damages. Any attempt to recertify the machines under the new name is probably something they still would have done under the old name.
That doesn't make the machines any less awful. It doesn't absolve Diebold of the responsibility for what it has done, nor does it mean that their ATM machines are any more trustworthy now. If I were the bank manager, I probably still would not buy their machines. But, if we are going to criticize the company for its incompetence, let us at least criticize them for the incompetencies which they demonstrate -- not ones which we misinterpret into their strategies.
how the fuck does where a man sticks his dick have any kind of relevance on his competence in country running?
if a guy makes good leadership decisions we shouldn't be judging him on sex. shit, we shouldn't even want to know about who he fucks! bob my accountant could be gay for all i know, i still appreciate he's the best man to do my tax.
personally, i'd prefer a well-laid president. probably start less wars in an effort to enhance his apparently lacking masculinity. maybe we should shout bush a hooker - 'y'know, on reflection, maybe we should just not shoot them quite so much and be friendly and perhaps they'll like us.. maybe invasion isn't the best way to say i like and respect your nation.. whew, what was i getting so excited about? here i was thinking there was this axis of evil and all it was was the fact i hadn't gotten laid in five years!'
sheesh..
They will rebrand, reorganize, etc., but in the end, don't forget their loyalty is to one political party. That is where the lobbying money goes, so you know who to blame whenever there's an e-voting fiasco.