Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Tuesday 04/01/08

[Melissa G]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Tuesday 04/01/08

Iowa to require paper ballots. See post 5 for details...

Cerro Gordo County Auditor Ken Kline demonstrates one of the voter assistance machines, which is used to assist handicapped voters.

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[Melissa G]

1. States n/t

[Melissa G]

5. IA- State to require paper ballots

(Check out the last line in this clip!)


State to require paper ballots
By BOB LINK, [e-mail]

Cerro Gordo County Auditor Ken Kline demonstrates one of the voter assistance machines, which is used to assist handicapped voters. (BOB LINK/The Globe Gazette)
MASON CITY — When Iowa voters cast their ballots in next November’s general election, they’ll be marking paper ballots and not voting on electronic voting machines.

Today, Gov. Chet Culver will sign legislation that requires counties to provide paper ballots.

The ballots can be counted by electronic means and voting machines can even assist in the marking of the ballot — but the law requires a paper ballot for each voter.

The new law comes after great debate, according to Cerro Gordo County Auditor Ken Kline, who is also president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors.

After years of moving toward electronic voting machines which feature touch screen convenience and quicker counting, the trend across the nation is now turning back to paper ballots.

http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2008/04/01/news/local/doc47f1b0f173338001400692.txt

[Melissa G]

7. IA- Governor Culver signs voting machine bill

Governor Culver signs voting machine bill
By James Q. Lynch
The Gazette
[e-mail]

DES MOINES - Beginning in November, all Iowans will be casting their votes on similar machines and there will be a ballot paper trail to increase voters' confidence in election integrity, Gov. Chet Culver said Tuesday.

Culver signed Senate File 2347 into law providing $4.6 million to create a statewide system of optical scan voting machines across the state. Already in use in 80 of 99 counties, the governor, who was joined by Secretary of State Mike Mauro, said the law "will ensure Iowa voters have complete confidence in our voting process."

With all Iowans voting on the same equipment, "what constitutes a vote in one county constitute a vote in another county," Mauro said.

Twenty-one counties already use only the optical scan and ballot-marking devices required under the bills and another 59 ¿ including Linn County — use a blend of optical scan and touch screen voting machines. SF 2347 would require counties use only the optical scan machines and complementary ballot-marking devices that accommodate voters with disabilities, such as vision impairment, beginning with the Nov. 4 general election.

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080401/NEWS/30570855/1006/news

[Melissa G]

8. NC- County commissioners approve voting machines

County commissioners approve voting machines

BY SHARON McBRAYER
[e-mail]
Tuesday, April 1, 2008



MORGANTON - Burke County will get 18 additional voting machines.

The Burke County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved its consent agenda on Tuesday, which included the machines. The county will pay $3,295 for each machine, for a total of $59,310.

The Burke County Board of Elections also will get $171,000 from Help America Vote Act funds to pay for an additional 52 machines, said Greer Suttlemyre, director of elections for the county. The machines are set to be delivered on July 1, he said.

The county currently has 148 touch screen machines.

The additional machines will bring the county into compliance with state election laws, said Suttlemyre. The state requires one machine for every 250 registered voters, he said.

http://www.morganton.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MNH/MGArticle/MNH_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173355161068&path=!frontpage

[Melissa G]

9. PA- County's voting machines good for now

Published March 31, 2008 10:16 pm - It looks like Mercer County’s voting machines are going to be good enough for at least the next two elections — and probably for another four years — according to the Department of State.


County's voting machines good for now


By Matt Snyder
Herald Staff Writer

MERCER COUNTY —

It looks like Mercer County’s voting machines are going to be good enough for at least the next two elections — and probably for another four years — according to the Department of State.

The ES&S iVotronic touch-screen voting machines used by Mercer County came into question after an Ohio report said they were riddled with security faults.

“We still have confidence in our voting machines here in Pennsylvania,” said Harry VanSickle, commissioner of the state’s Bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation.

VanSickle said the security flaws found in the ES&S model were very technical and unlikely to be trouble under real-world conditions.

“They looked at if someone had the keys to the car, could they steal it?” Vansickle said. “And they found that they could. But they did not look at whether they could steal the car if it’s protected by police.”

snip
As one example, the report found someone could re-calibrate the machine so that votes for a candidate would not be counted or would go to a different candidate.

http://www.sharonherald.com/local/local_story_091221644.html

[Melissa G]

14. PA- Voters file new petition to move polling place

Voters file new petition to move polling place

By JAMES MCGINNIS
Bucks County Courier Times

Russian-Americans and Indian-Americans at the Creekside Apartments filed a second petition with Bucks County Monday, once again alleging voter disenfranchisement and demanding a closer polling place.

The petition was signed by 23 residents of the apartment complex on Knights Road in Bensalem, according to attorney Kathryn Boockvar, who filed it on their behalf.

Deena Dean, director of the Bucks County Board of Elections, said changes to the voter district would be impossible before the April 22 primary.

For many years, Creekside residents could vote at their apartment complex's community hall. Last year, the voting machines were moved to Polanka Hall, a mile away. The county said it was responding to two letters from Bensalem residents who believed the apartment complex was unsafe.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-04012008-1512064.html

[Melissa G]

19. NJ- Control of elections shifts from the AG to state department

Control of elections shifts from the AG to state department
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
BY DIANE C. WALSH
Star-Ledger Staff

As New Jersey election officials grapple with an ongoing dispute about the reliability of electronic voting machines, the Department of State resumes control over all election matters today with protecting the integrity of the voting process as a top priority.

Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells said she intends to coordinate closely with county officials who have raised concerns about voting machines after discrepancies were found in the Feb. 5 presidential primary election. The Department of State resumes control over elections after a decade under the Attorney General's Office based on legislation signed in January.
Advertisement

"It will allow us to give a lot of time, attention and resources to elections," Wells said yesterday in a telephone interview. "We want all our citizens engaged in the process. After all, what's more important in a democracy than the right to vote?"

snip

The reorganization comes as questions intensify over the reliability of the electronic voting machines used throughout New Jersey. A long-awaited trial is scheduled to convene in May before Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg to determine whether or not the 10,000 touch-screen machines manufactured by Sequoia Voting Systems should be scrapped.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1207028154273570.xml&coll=1

[Melissa G]

20. OH- Scrutiny of 700 ballots foretells fall frustration

Scrutiny of 700 ballots foretells fall frustration
Elections panel joins in tedious resolution of disputed votes

Tuesday, April 1, 2008 3:15 AM
By Jim Woods
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Members of the Franklin County Board of Elections got a glimpse yesterday of the hours of work it could take to review paper ballots after the November presidential election.

The four board members inspected and determined what voters intended to mark on 700 ballots cast in the March 4 primary. The process dragged on more than five hours.

The problem ballots had been set aside and left uncounted because of stray marks, water stains or other problems.

Those who voted before March 4 or absentee filled out a paper ballot. Those who cast ballots on election day also had the option of doing so on paper.

Among about 325,000 ballots cast in the primary, about 100,000 were paper ballots, so the failure rate was 0.7 percent.


http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/01/Votemachine.ART_ART_04-01-08_B1_4L9Q50D.html?sid=101

[Melissa G]

21. TX- Macias lawsuit challenges March 4 defeat

Macias lawsuit challenges March 4 defeat

03/31/2008

By APRIL CASTRO / Associated Press

A Central Texas Republican legislator who lost his re-election bid by a handful of votes filed an election challenge on Monday, saying illegal votes contributed to his defeat and asked a judge to order a new election.

A recount last week confirmed Doug Miller defeated incumbent Rep. Nathan Macias in their March 4 Republican primary. But Macias' attorney said hundreds of illegal votes were counted in the contest, including 253 from voters who cast two ballots.

"I personally, as former general counsel for the Republican Party of Texas, was shocked at irregularities," said Macias attorney Rene Diaz.

Diaz said the same unique voter ID numbers appeared more than once on the official voter lists from each party's primary. In some cases people apparently voted early in both primaries. Others voted early in one party primary but voted in another on election day. Still other voters cast ballots early and again on election day.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8VON4I80.html

[sonias]

22. Whiner

The only thing that will be interesting in this lawsuit is how much fraud the republicans are committing in Texas, because this after all in the republican primary.

:popcorn:

Sonia

[Melissa G]

23. Probably all those cross over voters who went to mess with the Dem Primary

Wonder of our wondrous AG will prosecute the 'pubs for voter fraud instead of little old ladies?:eyes:

[sonias]

24. Not going to do it - you already know that

Only Democrats commit voter fraud in Texas. Republicans just make mistakes and misspeak.

Abbott is a horse's ass! :grr:

Sonia

[Melissa G]

25. Yeah, But it would be fun to harass His Horsiness about it.

We could start a call in campaign if we find that 'The Limbaugh Factor' is the source. :evilgrin:

[Melissa G]

2. National n/t

[Melissa G]

6. Whistleblower: Voting Machine Company Lied to Election Officials About Reliability of Machines

Whistleblower: Voting Machine Company Lied to Election Officials About Reliability of Machines

By Kim Zetter
March 31, 2008


A former technician who worked for Hart InterCivic -- a voting machine company based in Texas -- has alleged that his company lied to election officials about the accuracy, testing, reliability and security of its voting machines. The whistleblower says the company did so because it was eager to obtain some of the approximately $4 billion in federal funds that Congress allocated to states in 2002 to purchase new voting equipment under the Help America Vote Act (aka HAVA).

The technician, William Singer, filed a qui tam lawsuit on the federal government's behalf last year but the lawsuit remained sealed until today, according to the Associated Press, when the U.S. Attorney's office decided it would not join Singer in the litigation. Singer maintains that Hart was paid federal money under false pretenses for the eSlate machines it sold to states. He's now pursuing the case without the government and, according to a voicemail message that one of his lawyers left me, he's now doing so in conjunction with Robert Kennedy, Jr. If Singer wins and Hart InterCivic is forced to return funds to the federal government, Singer stands to obtain a percentage of those funds as a party to the suit.

According to the complaint filed in the lawsuit, Singer worked as a computer technician for Hart from 2001 to early 2004 when he says he resigned due to the company's fraudulent acts and misrepresentations.

Among the claims he makes:

• Hart didn't completely alpha test its software and didn't beta test its software at all.

• Hart created a "dummy" machine to undergo certification testing in Ohio because he says its standard system configuration would not have passed certification. Hart then didn't upgrade its standard system to match the system that passed certification.

• The Ohio certification requirements mandated that voting machines be able to produce a certain kind of report that the Hart machine couldn't produce. So Singer says Hart created a dummy report by hand and told certification officials that it came from the voting system.

• After Singer discovered that the eSlate's audit logging function, known as BOSS, generated invalid entries -- thus rendering the audit trail ineffective -- the company patched the software in some jurisdictions without telling customers it was changing the software and without submitting the changes for certification.

• Special voting units that Hart designed for disabled voters to use "were particularly prone to lose votes due to system design flaws that were well known within Hart," which Hart concealed from customers.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2801&Itemid=51

[Melissa G]

15. The Creekside Declaration... "Mission: To encourage citizen ownership

BradBlog (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-31-08 11:27 PM
Original message
The Creekside Declaration...
"Mission: To encourage citizen ownership
of transparent, participatory democracy."
- Creekside Declaration, 3/22/08


The statement is deceptively simple. Yet I think it best underscores all that we fight for here, and what we hope those who claim to be toiling for the same cause will measure themselves against.

I was privileged to spend last weekend with a dozen or so Election Integrity advocates and heroes of mine in Palo Alto, CA, at the Creekside Inn. Those in attendance had experience in election administration, data analysis, media watchdogging, voting rights activism, voter advocacy, computer programming and security, boots-on-the-ground oversight, election auditing, and even voting system vendor perspective.

The declaration was created as several of us determined it would be helpful to define the cause as specifically and directly as possible. Once it was finalized, I signed it first, in large letters, as the Hancock legend goes, "so that King George can read it without his glasses."

My hope is that anyone --- any person or organization or even candidate for office, claiming to be in the fight for clean, fair, honest, accurate democracy --- would both commit to this simply stated mission, and then measure his or her efforts against it.

Will you and/or your group? Will you ask your candidate if they will do same?...





MORE: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5846
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5846&preview=true#comment-344221

[Melissa G]

16. Electile Dysfunction- World Premiere

Electile Dysfunction
USA 2008, 93 min

World Premiere

This wide-ranging analysis -- featuring commentary from an impressive array of local and national politicos, connected observers and average joes -- delves into the inner workings of sophisticated 21st-century campaigning to examine the dichotomy between the complex science of electioneering and the disillusioned voting public.

Fast-paced and savvy, Electile Dysfunction uses the 2006 U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania between Bob Casey, Jr. and Rick Santorum as a case study to explore how campaigns work in the media-crazed 21st century. Collecting interviews with a veritable who's who of political insiders, activist celebrities and ordinary voters from Philadelphia and around the world, the film explains how the highly perverted process fails our nation's democratic ideals, and why it is that public dissatisfaction seems conversely proportional to the precision of political maneuvering. Excerpts from candidates’ spots and vintage clips provide a light and witty counterpoint that helps to avoid information overload, and the quick pace keeps things moving. Among the topics covered are the easily influenced and storyline-hungry media, the frightening influence of big money and pre-packaged candidates with disturbingly over-calculated personas. Particularly with a Presidential election just around the corner, this insightful documentary is a valuable breakdown of our country’s deeply flawed political process. -- Noelle Reilly

http://www.phillyfests.com/pff/film-details.cfm?id=7443


Wednesday, April 9 « 7:00 PM
Prince Music Theater
Tickets $10.00

World Premiere
Director: Joe Barber, Mary Patel
Cast: Interviewees include: Barack Obama, Al Gore, Rick Santorum, Bob Casey, Elliott Gould, Ed Asner, Ed Rendell, Joe Trippi, Neil Oxman, Mark Moskowitz, Christine Todd Whitman, Dennis Kucinich, Larry Mendte, Arlen Specter
Producer(s): Joe Barber
Cinematographer: Chad Jenkins
Editor(s): Aaron Schumann
Electile Dysfunction is Joe Barber, Mary Patel's debut.

[Melissa G]

17. No Clearance for von Spakovsky

No Clearance for von Spakovsky

Yesterday’s Washington Post story by Matt Mosk that former FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky had been “cleared” of undue influence by an Election Administration Commission IG Report is misleading at best. At the outset, it seems odd that an article like this appeared almost three weeks after it was released. It hardly seems like news at this point in time.

In any event, the article’s conclusion that the Report “cleared” von Spakovsky of any attempts at influencing EAC Commissioners is contrary to the facts set forth in the report. In fact, the report indicated on several occasions that he in fact did make attempts at influencing EAC commissioners for political reasons. In the report former EAC Commissioner Paul DeGregorio is quoted as saying that “too many of decisions are clouded by his partisan thinking.” DeGregorio also said that von Spakovsky “certainly tried to influence” him, adding: “There’s no question about that.” Finally, the report stated that “according to DeGregorio, von Spakovsky thought he should use his position (on the EAC commission) to advance the Repuublican Party position.” So it is clear from this report that von Spakovsky did try and influence DeGregorio for political reasons, but it concludes that such efforts were in the end unsuccessful. Mosk’s story quotes von Spakovsky as saying that the report’s conclusions “represented a personal vindication.” This is a vindication? It sounds more like an illustration of incompetence or ineffectiveness at influencing a commissioner for improper reasons.

Of equal concern is von Spakovsky’s justification for his actions. In the mosk story, he is quoted as saying that “the Justice Department was supposed to serve the in an advisory capacity.” He added: “The purpose of the advisers is to provide advice. I was entirely within the scope of my job<.>” Actually, that’s not true, and neither the Inspector General nor Mosk ever bothered to see if it was true. In fact, according to a statement provided to Congress by seven former Justice Department attorneys and staffers, von Spakovsky “usurped” the role of the Voting Section chief during his time at DOJ (from 2003 through December 2005) specifically with regard to his pressuring the EAC. According to one letter, von Spakovsky

assumed the role of de facto Voting Section Chief replacing the career Section Chief in most of his statutory responsibilities and traditional duties managing the Section. Mr. von Spakovsky assumed a position on the EAC Advisory Board that was reserved explicitly by Section 214(a)(13) of the Help America Vote Act for the ‘chief of the Voting Section or the chief’s designee’” even though the Section Chief had never designated Mr. von Spakovsky for this position<.>

http://www.clcblog.org/blog_item-221.html

[Melissa G]

18. Hearing Highlights Mixed Compliance, DoJ Inaction on Public Assistance Voter Registration

Hearing Highlights Mixed Compliance, DoJ Inaction on Public Assistance Voter Registration Requirement
April 1st, 2008

Americans will be presented with far-reaching choices this November as we vote in presidential and congressional races. Sadly, millions of low-income citizens likely won’t be participating in those elections for the simple reason that they won’t be registered to vote. Many states have in recent years failed to offer voter registration to food stamp, WIC, Medicaid, and TANF applicants and recipients, as required since 1995 under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), Section 7.

Today, the House Elections Subcommittee is convening a hearing to investigate what’s gone wrong with NVRA compliance and what can be done to turn things around before November. Demos, Project Vote, and representatives from North Carolina and Michigan will testify. Collectively, they will show how tremendous voter registration increases can be achieved through enlightened state leadership and strong public-private partnerships.

The income gap among the American electorate weighed heavily in Congress when it enacted the NVRA. It directed that voter registration be offered at public assistance offices, as at departments of motor vehicles and through the mails, so that low-income and disabled Americans who are less likely to own cars would not be disadvantaged by a strictly DMV-based system.

At first — and after a string of unsuccessful legal challenges to the statute — the agency registration provisions of the law produced results. Millions of new voters were added to the registration rolls in the first few years of NVRA implementation. But over time, changes in state administrations, turnover at state agencies, and lagging enforcement by the Department of Justice took a toll. The number of voter registration applications generated by public assistance agencies has declined by 79 percent since the initial implementation of the law. While more than 2.6 million such applications were recorded in 1995-1996, only 540,000 were reported in 2005-2006. Recent investigations by Demos, Project Vote and others groups in numerous states found local public benefits offices not offering voter registration to agency applicants and clients, the lack of on-site voter registration applications, staff who were entirely unaware of the obligation to offer voter registration, and other failures to follow the law.

These declines can be reversed. Working in partnerships with Dēmos and its allies, North Carolina has implemented a comprehensive compliance plan that has achieved dramatic results. While the state registered only 11,600 persons at public assistance agencies in a recent two-year period (2005-2006), North Carolina has registered over 34,500 persons from February 2007 to February 2008, the first year of North Carolina’s re-implementation program. Iowa witnessed an astounding 3000 percent increase in agency registration after it implemented a similar initiative in 2004. Substantial gains will likely be seen in Michigan after the state Department of Human Services rolls out a new civic engagement program at its public benefits offices.
http://blog.thehill.com/2008/04/01/hearing-highlights-mixed-compliance-doj-inaction-on-nvra%e2%80%99s-public-assistance-voter-registration-requirement/

[Melissa G]

3. International n/t

[Melissa G]

11. India- Firms ready to make their mark as Karnataka gears up for elections

Firms ready to make their mark as Karnataka gears up for elections

Nearly 1,100 litres of the ink, priced at Rs64 per 10ml bottle, will be used to mark the left index fingers of 40 million people expected to turn out to vote for their candidates


Ajay Sukumaran

Bangalore: Karnataka will be the first state to conduct polls after the notification to redraw boundaries of constituencies was issued in February, on the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission of India.

And as is the case with any election, it is boom time for a select group of firms. Take the case of public sector Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), which supplies electronic voting machines, or EVMs. Approximately 50,000 EVMs — including back-up machines — would be required at 39,758 polling stations across Karnataka. Each costs Rs10,500, after factoring in taxes and transportation.
Making a more permanent mark, quite literally, would be Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd (MPVL), a Karnataka government-owned company, which last week began producing 110,000 bottles of indelible ink, or voter’s ink — a vital requirement for any election.

Nearly 1,100 litres of the ink, priced at Rs64 per 10ml bottle, will be used to mark the left index fingers of 40 million people expected to turn out to vote for their candidates.
While it also manufactures several varieties of paints, indelible ink has become the primary product of the 71-year-old company. The sole manufacturer in the country, it has supplied the ink for every election in India since 1962. MVPL also exports the product to some 25 countries.

M.V. Hemanth Kumar, managing director, says that MPVL is the only Indian company to have manufactured the ink, though he was not sure if it was imported prior to 1962.

http://www.livemint.com/2008/04/02002944/Firms-ready-to-make-their-mark.html

[Melissa G]

4. Editorial n/t

[Melissa G]

10. Credit Where Due--Reverse Bradley Effect Edition

Credit Where Due--Reverse Bradley Effect Edition

The Pew Research Center has an interesting piece up on the "Reverse Bradley Effect" I've written about several times. It's by two academics at the University of Washington:

Analysis of primary counts and polling data from the early primaries, including those held before and on Super Tuesday (February 5), indicated that pre-election polls did indeed exaggerate support for Sen. Barack Obama in three states with relatively low black populations -- New Hampshire, California and Massachusetts. But the reverse was true in South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia, where blacks make up a larger bloc of voters.

As shown in the graph, the findings in South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia suggested to us the discovery of a new "reverse" Bradley effect, i.e., that in states with relatively large African American populations, pre-primary polls tended to underestimate support for Obama.

This is good stuff, as far as it goes. But I think the authors need a theory about why this might be happening, and maybe a little evidence in support of said theory. Fortunately, I've got that stuff right here.

First, the theory (see here and here):

Is it possible that some black voters would tell pollsters they support Hillary (or that they're undecided) because they don't want to sound like they're voting mainly out of racial solidarity, even though they actually intend to vote for Obama? If so, you could have a reverse Bradley effect, in which polling understated support for the black candidate in a primary with a large African American population (i.e., Obama in South Carolina). ...

I'd speculate that when African-Americans are in the presence of whites, the greater social fear is being considered a "race man" (or woman). Which means you'd expect some reluctance to express support for Obama when the interviewer is white.

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/04/01/credit-where-due-reverse-bradley-effect-edition.aspx

[Melissa G]

12. Blackspin- Florida GOP Bait and Switch

Florida GOP Bait and Switch

Posted Apr 1st 2008 11:00AM by Faye Anderson

It's April Fool's Day but Florida voters were fooled back in 2007 when Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law legislation banning electronic voting machines. The bill passed unanimously in the House and drew just two nay votes in the Senate.

Voting rights advocates (including the writer) cheered that Florida was ending its experiment with unreliable paperless voting machines. But we did not know that buried in the legislative boilerplate was a provision that would disenfranchise millions of voters:

Each political party other than a minor political party shall, on the last second Tuesday in January March in each year the number of which is a multiple of 4, elect one person to be the candidate for nomination of such party for President of the United States or select delegates to the national nominating convention, as provided by party rule.

In plain English, the presidential primary was switched from March 11 to January 29. And the rest is history.

Investigator reporter Wayne Barrett writes Republicans imposed their will on Democrats:

The Republicans don't just control both houses of the Florida legislature. Their combined 103-to-57 majority allowed them to dictate the terms of the bill that moved the primary to January 29. It is true that all but one of the state's Democratic legislators supported the bill. But a closer look reveals that vote to be more an indication of a realistic and productive compromise with the ruling Republicans than any intent to breach Democratic rules.

http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/04/01/florida-gop-bait-and-switch/

[Melissa G]

13. Bradblog: Diebold Launches Initiative to 'Care' About Things No, Seriously...

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 4/1/2008 5:05AM
Diebold Launches Initiative to 'Care' About Things
No, Seriously...

No, this is not satire, like the recent hilarious Onion video on Diebold, nor is it an April Fools gag. It's actually just Diebold. Who, as usual, is joke enough all by themselves...were it not for the hundreds of thousands of dead people due, in no small part, to their incompetence and/or treachery, of course.

Here's the beginning of their latest press release...
Diebold Launches Caring Initiatives for Benevolent Causes

NORTH CANTON, Ohio, March 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --- Diebold is launching a campaign of "caring" to benefit breast cancer research and environmental preservation.

Yes, they had to launch a new initiative to actual "care" about things. And yes, the word "caring" is actually in quotations in the original announcement.

In regard to the environmental part of their new campaign to "care," a company spokesperson is quoted in the release as saying, "We are evaluating all of our products to ensure whenever possible we are offering a recycled alternative."

On that point, ironically enough, in Florida of late, things have gone somewhat backwards for Diebold on the recycling front. Rather than using "recycled alternatives" in their products, it is their products themselves which are quickly becoming the recycled. Literally.

snip
Can't make this stuff up. And let us repeat: Nothing in the above story is an April Fools joke!
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5854

[Kurovski]

26. I'm sure Al Gore would approve.

...with a sledgehammer at the factory.

Thanks MG! :hug: