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http://www.blackboxvoting.orgThe real story behind the October ballot problemsBy Andy Stephenson, Thu, 10/21/2004
Black Box Voting has obtained documents from June 2004 indicating that Diebold was concerned about upcoming ballot printing problems. Recent problems in California (Alameda, San Diego and Tulare counties) and Washington state (King County) appear to trace back to labor problems at the Diebold printing plant in Everett Washington.
Black Box Voting warned of Diebold’s impending problems with ballot-printing in July.
Internal documents (pdf., pg. 5-8) from Diebold describe severe labor problems in its printing facility.
Diebold’s printshop employees had filed a petition to join the Teamsters Union. Diebold tried to break the unionization effort by hiring a “persuader” and investigating some of its employees, with its finger coming to rest on a young man named Justin Elder (sources inside the printshop tell us that Diebold fingered the wrong guy). Around this time, Diebold terminated many of its experienced printshop employees, and others quit. Diebold replaced them with temps and inexperienced workers.
Black Box Voting has learned of several complaints about the conditions inside the Diebold printing plant, and the management report indicates that Diebold was aware of severe problems with morale.
Diebold insiders predicted that ballot printing problems would begin surfacing by Sept. 27, manifesting themselves publicly around Oct 18 when absentee ballots are sent out. It appears they were right:
- Ballots for Alameda County, California, were reportedly printed incorrectly not once, but twice, causing extra stress for Alameda and delays in the printing queue.
- According to Seattle’s KING 5 TV news, King County received ballots missing the ovals, which are marked to cast a vote. Without the ovals, King County optical scan machines cannot read the ballots. This problem almost certainly traces back to the Diebold printing plant, and is probably due to a machine that was not maintained properly.
Diebold employees have reported the following problems in the Diebold ballot printing division: - Ignoring health and safety issues. The big Xeikon digital printing machines normally have a guard on them to reduce the risk of injury, but having this guard in place slows production. Diebold decided to speed production by removing the guard. Employees report that an under-age temporary employee was not properly trained; he lost a finger in the machine. In early July, cups of urine ended up scattered all over the lunchroom table when a surprise drug test was administered to shop employees (but not management).
- Ignoring security issues: Diebold’s practice of hiring temporary workers without background checks once resulted in the theft of a computer containing sensitive company information. Diebold employees report further concerns: The computer could very well have contained the voter registration file for King County, with private information on 1.4 million voters -- including, for certain types of registration files, social security numbers. It turns out that all it contained was sensitive financial information; in the police report, the employee who stole the computer says “my friends call me a klepto.”
Several Diebold employees, and former employees, called us in August and September. They predicted quality problems with the ballots. Experienced ballot printers know the severe consequences an improperly produced ballot can cause: Voter disenfranchisement. Diebold’s experienced staff often took extra steps to proofread ballots and catch problems -- even when those problems were caused by mistakes at the county.
Many jurisdictions that rely on Diebold for their ballot printing needs have experienced problems this fall:
- Residents in Tulare county California recently received sample
ballots with the wrong election date. The correct date is printed on the front and back covers, but Page 2 in Spanish gives Nov. 4, instead of Nov. 2, as Election Day.
- Not all ballot problems are Diebold’s fault. In San Diego County, some voters received two absentee ballots, blamed on workers at the county Registrar of Voters Office. King County, Washington reports that 3,500 voters may have received multiple absentee ballots. This problem was said to have been caused by a computer glitch that occurred when voter records were updated. However, we interviewed a voter who received two ballots; he did not make any changes to his registration that would require updates.
- The San Diego announcement came on the heels of an earlier announcement that Diebold, or its affiliate, Central Presort, stuffed the wrong ballot into envelopes that were then sent out to voters.
Unfortunately it is not Diebold that will suffer for poor management strategies, but it is the voters who will be disenfranchised.
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I'm posting this now, because Andy's out on an investigation tonight. By the way, stop in at the Cleanup Crew page to see what you can do before, during, the night of, and the week after the election.
Election Protection has a huge group monitoring voting.
Black Box Voting has a major effort monitoring counting.
The Cleanup Crew page also has links to several other watchdog efforts by various groups.
Get involved:
CLEANUP CREW ACTION MENU 
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