Election Bullshit and More Blunt Trauma

Hey, kids!

Your friends at the St. Louis Board of Elections made a decision to award a $2.2 million dollar contract to Diebold Elections Systems. Your election system has been entrusted to a company that's been getting quite a lot of press lately!

Let's review for a moment, shall we?

1. Diebold is being sued by their investors for making all sorts of fraudulent claims. There's two - that's right, two - class action lawsuits pending which allege that Diebold lied about its technological abilities in order to inflate its stock value and for making false financial and technological performance statements.

2. Diebold's systems are, apparently, easily hacked and votes can be altered without leaving a trace. That's why some counties in Florida just dropped their contract with Diebold.

3. If we turn our attention to the west -- the entire state of California has refused to recertify Diebold's voting machines. Apparently, Diebold did not provide its programming code for testing "to an independent testing authority, which is required for federal certification." Whoops!

4. Oh, and the fella who once ran the Ohio-based company said that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes" to George Bush in 2004, which... well.... happened. I'm sure all those allegations of improper vote counting in Ohio and Georgia had nothing to do with his resignation last week.

5. Oh! Let's not forget that a whistle-blower at Diebold once said: "In my opinion, Diebold's election system is one of the greatest threats our democracy has ever known....."

6. Diebold's endless stream of election fuck-ups in Maryland is detailed here.

7. The Government Accounting Office's September 2005 report also lists numerous problems with Diebold's technology.

I guess the three folks who made the decision to choose Diebold in a closed-door meeting kew better than the GAO, a couple of states, an insider, a computer expert and the company's investors.

After all, they were all appointed by Governor Matt Blunt, whose tenure as Missouri Secretary of State warranted a lawsuit from the Federal Justice Department last month!

What a bunch of winners! At least -- that's what the official ballot count from Diebold says!

I just wanted to also pass along a letter (below) from a reader who expresses an opinion that I'm sure many of you share.

You can pass along your thoughts to the winners at the Board of Elections here: http://stlcin.missouri.org/index/contactelect.cfm?ID=36

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I am writing to convey my disgust with your decision to award a contract to Diebold Election Systems.

This firm is run by right wing extremists with close ties to the criminal Bush administration.

I will now never vote again in this city that I've spent the last 10 years in with ANY confidence that my vote will actually mean anything.

It is inexcusable that people in your position would not simply do a news search of past articles on this corrupt firm. You would find a staggering amount of documented cases where their systems either failed or were suspected by large swaths of voters of being internally hacked to revise votes. The CEO of Diebold even assurred a GOP crowd that he would "deliver" the state of Ohio to Bush in 2004. This incident alone should disqualify Diebold from ever selling voting machines.

Perception is just as important as reality. You may think these systems won't fail under your watch, but if a third of the voting population has no confidence in the machines, what kind of representative vote will result? I for one am unsure if I'll even bother voting in the future because of this and I know many, many other voters who feel the same way.

By this vote, I'm afraid that you have traded democracy to save a few bucks on the best bid.