BALTIMORE CHRONICLE: Counting Votes - 12/09/04

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Counting Votes

http://baltimorechronicle.com/120904Burns.html

by Margie Burns

According to the company web site, “Election Systems & Software, Inc.
(ES&S) is the world's largest and most experienced provider of total
election management solutions with over 74,000 systems installed
worldwide. Over the past decade, ES&S has handled more than 30,000 of
the world's most important events--elections. In the U.S. 2000 General
Election, ES&S systems counted over 100 million ballots.” The company
provides election machines for local, state and national elections:
“Based on the primary voting tabulation system installed within the
United States, our customers represent approximately 50 percent of the
precincts and registered voters in the U.S. ES&S systems have counted
approximately 56 percent of the U.S. national vote in each of the last
four presidential and congressional elections.” The company’s
connections are also impressive. It was founded in Omaha, Neb., and
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) was chairman of the company when it was
American Information Services. The founders were two brothers, Bob and
Todd Urosevich. Todd Urosevich is currently vice president of ES&S.
His brother Bob is now head of Diebold Election Systems, another large
election machine company based in Ohio.

As pointed out in the online newspaper American Free Press, “Together,
the computerized ballot scanners and touch-screen voting machines
systems made by ES&S and Diebold recorded some 80 percent of all votes
cast in the recent U.S. presidential election.”

The Center for Responsive Politics reveals large contributions from
Diebold, almost all to Republican candidates, including $15,000 in
2000 to the Republican National Committee, $100,000 in soft money to
the GOP in 2000 and another $100,965 in 2002. The insider touch got a
bit disconcerting in August, when CBS News reported on a letter from
Diebold's CEO, Wally Odell, who was also a Republican fundraiser. In
an invitation to a Bush fundraising benefit, Odell wrote that "I am
committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the
president." After the news item, Odell announced that he was getting
out of politics.

This year the election was followed by so many complaints about vote
fraud, vote suppression and other anomalies that on Dec. 8, Rep. John
Conyers (D-Michigan) hosted a forum (aired on C-Span) to highlight
some of the problems. Last weekend, demonstrations protested vote
problems in Ohio, where the Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell,
was also Ohio’s Bush-Cheney state chairman. Blackwell certified Ohio
election results this week. Jesse Jackson called on Blackwell to
recuse himself from the election process, saying his objectivity is
compromised by his position in the Bush-Cheney campaign. Conyers,
Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee and dean of the Black
Congressional Caucus, has also written to Blackwell, requesting his
answer to questions that would have made headlines under any previous
administration:


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