[MLUG] Diebold demands that HBO cancel documentary on voting machines

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

You remember Diebold...

http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/~mbmiller/pics/humor/diebold/

...the guys who make all the crappy electronic voting machines that allow 
all sorts of easy cheating?  Well there is a new movie about them that you 
can watch for free, in its entirety, here:

http://throwawayyourtv.com/2006/11/hacking-democracy-full-film.html

See the article below in which Diebold tries to protect its tattered 
reputation by claiming that the film is inaccurate, but without citing a 
single purported inaccuracy.  Diebold has tried to stop computer 
scientists from studying their machines, but those scientists who have 
managed to get access to a machine and study it have found it to be 
extremely poorly designed and vulnerable to tampering.

We need **open source** voting software and hardware!!!  It is essential 
to our democracy.  We also need a paper trail.  The Columbia 
fat-marker-plus-scanner strategy sounds great though -- a touch screen 
interface doesn't add a lot to that (but it does add expense for taxpayers 
and profit for manufacturers).

Mike

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/290653_diebold01.html

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
November 1, 2006

Diebold demands that HBO cancel documentary on voting machines
Film saying they can be manipulated 'inaccurate'

By MICHAEL JANOFSKY, BLOOMBERG NEWS

Diebold Inc. insisted that cable network HBO cancel a documentary that 
questions the integrity of its voting machines, calling the program 
inaccurate and unfair.

The program, "Hacking Democracy," is scheduled to debut Thursday, five 
days before the 2006 U.S. midterm elections. The film claims that Diebold 
voting machines aren't tamper-proof and can be manipulated to change 
voting results.

"Hacking Democracy" is "replete with material examples of inaccurate 
reporting," Diebold Election System President David Byrd said in a letter 
to HBO President and Chief Executive Chris Albrecht posted on Diebold's 
Web site. Short of pulling the film, Monday's letter asks for disclaimers 
to be aired and for HBO to post Diebold's response on its Web site.

According to Byrd's letter, inaccuracies in the film include the assertion 
that Diebold, whose election systems unit is based in Allen, Texas, 
tabulated more than 40 percent of the votes cast in the 2000 presidential 
election.

The letter says Diebold wasn't in the electronic voting business in 2000, 
when disputes over ballots in Florida delayed President Bush's victory for 
more than a month and raised questions about the reliability of electronic 
voting machines.

"We stand by the film," said Jeff Cusson, a spokesman for HBO, which is a 
unit of Time Warner Inc.

"We have no intention of withdrawing it from our schedule. It appears that 
the film Diebold is responding to is not the film HBO is airing."

David Bear, a spokesman for Diebold, said the company bought another firm, 
Global Elections, in 2002 that served about 8 percent of balloting in 
2000, including voters in Florida. The company, which hasn't seen the 
film, based its complaints on material from the HBO Web site, Bear said.

This is Diebold's second recent defense of its system. On Sept. 26, Byrd 
wrote to Jann Wenner, editor and publisher of Rolling Stone, saying a 
story written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., "Will the Next Election Be 
Hacked?" was "error-riddled" and that readers "deserve a better researched 
and reported article."

The HBO documentary is based on the work of Bev Harris, the Renton woman 
who founded BlackBoxVoting.org, which monitors election accuracy. In 2004 
the attorney general of California took up a whistle-blower claim filed by 
Harris against Diebold and settled with the company for $2.6 million in 
December.


© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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