Columbus Dispatch: Diebold Pushed too Hard to Sell Voting Machines

[mod mom]

Important article from a paper that enfdorsed bu$h. Definitely worth the read!

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2005/08/14/20050814-A1-00.html&chck=t

Employees pushed too hard to sell voting machines, some county officials say

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Jim Siegel , Robert Ruth and Robert Vitale
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

When Susan Gwinn read that a Diebold Inc. representative handed a
$10,000 check to the Franklin County elections director, the scenario
sounded familiar.

The head of the Athens County Democratic Party and chairwoman of the
county's board of elections said Diebold representative William
Chavanne tried to give her $1,000 for the county party in October
2003. At the time, the board was preparing to buy new voting machines.
"My concern at the time was that he was trying to influence my
decision," Gwinn said, adding that she turned down the donation.

snip

• Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of
Elections, was suspended for 30 days after admitting he accepted a
$10,000 check in January 2004 from Pasquale "Pat" Gallina, a Diebold
representative who made out the check to the county Republican Party.
The donation came the day the county was opening bids for new
voter-registration software. Prosecutor Ron O'Brien and sheriff's
detectives are investigating.

• Daniel Harkins, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party, said
he stormed out of a dinner with four Diebold representatives on April
26 after they tried to strong-arm him.

[Tesla]

1. I hear Daniel Harkins is a good guy, moderate Republican.

Glad to see a politician with a conscious.

[slor]

2. Good article, but I thought they withheld a chimp...

endorsement in 2004? I know they did endorse that idiot in 2000, but I am not so sure about 2004, anyone know for sure?

[meganmonkey]

3. No, they gave a real wishy-washy endorsement of him:

"Confronted with these disappointments and this choice, The Dispatch believes a second-term George W. Bush would stand a better chance of leading the nation up the difficult road that lies ahead."

http://www.dispatch.com/election/election-local.php?story=dispatch/2004/10/23/20041023-dis-endorse.html

I am pleasantly surprised to see this article in the Cols Disgrace!

[MostlyLurks]

4. They Endorsed Bush in 2004

It was a really weak endorsement. Paraphrasing here: "Bush sucks and you're likely to get screwed by him for four more years...But...Kerry...French Flip Flop...We therefore endorse Bush."

My boss called the CD subscription deptartment that morning and cancelled.

Mostly

[mod mom]

5. Connection to the Lucas County BOE + Coingate Scandal:

RE: Lucas County- of interest in particular to Lucas county is this quote from the article:

"Joe Kidd, an attorney and former Lucas County elections director who
represents Gallina, said neither he nor Gallina would comment for this
story."

Mr Kidd, as we know is the reason Bernadette Noe first approached Julia Bates ( Lucas county Prosecutor) starting the investigation of Coingate. Joe Kidd was going through a contentious divorce from Ms Noe's friend, a fellow attorney who worked at 2 different law firms with Bernadette. Now we find him as representing Pat Gallina the Diebold Lobbyist. Very interesting.

[mod mom]

7. INITIAL ALLEGATION: Kidd funneling $ to Petro (OH A.G.) from Diebold

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Diebold bribes?: “Bernadette Noe thought she was doing the right thing by reporting that a voting-machine contractor might be offering a bribe to land business with the Lucas County Board of Elections.”

“In January 2004, Mrs. Noe, then chairwoman of the Lucas County Republican Party and a member of the county election board, met for coffee with Elections Board Director Joe Kidd and Pasquale “Pat” Gallina, who worked for a consulting firm hired by Diebold Election Systems.”

“While discussing Diebold’s prospects for landing a lucrative contract to provide new voting machines for the county, Mrs. Noe became concerned that Gallina might be trying to unduly influence Kidd. She told Thurber, an engineer and husband of Lucas County Commissioner Maggie Thurber, about her concern.”“The initial allegation,” Bates added, “was that Joe Kidd was funneling money to (Attorney General Jim) Petro from Diebold. We looked at that and found no evidence of that. But we found other things, and that’s what led to the federal referral.”


“But during an interview with Kidd, Bates said her office learned that Mr. Noe allegedly gave $2,000 to a number of friends to forward under their names to the Bush campaign. It is illegal to conceal the source of campaign contributions. Bates referred the allegations to U.S. Attorney Greg White, who is investigating.”

“Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien is investigating Gallina’s activities after reports that Gallina wrote a $10,000 check to the Franklin County Republican Party on a day in January 2004 when the county’s elections board was opening bids for new voter-registration software. Elections Director Matthew Damschroder, a Republican, on Monday was docked 30 days pay for taking Gallina’s check in violation of an elections board rule against accepting political contributions on the job.”

http://www.ohiohonestelections.org/index.php?p=more-republican-thieves

Why would Bernadette make such an allegation that could be proven incorrect and could open a can of worms-which it did? Petro is running against Blackwell for the Republican nomination of OH Governor. I find this to be VERY INTERESTING!

[mod mom]

6. Diebold funneled money thru ACG Group (Pat Gallina)

Diebold denies giving Pat Gallina money
to use for bribes, but his business partner Juan Andrade, Jr., through
their company, ACG Group LLC, admits to receiving $20,000 a month for
lobbying for Diebold, for at least sixteen months, according to an
interview available for anyone's viewing on BlackboxVoting.org.