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New Documents From Diebold Election Systems |
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Black Box Voting July 20, 2005 One late night in Texas, 51-year-old Kathleen Wynne did something she never thought she would consider: She jumped into a dumpster. An ordinary citizen who had become concerned about the integrity of Diebold voting machines, Wynne was amazed to find hundreds of pages of documents in the trash. Among them: internal notes and memos, planning information, problems with equipment and customers,
price bid worksheets, staff bonus! es, and financial statements from Diebold Election Systems. It was early July, just after second quarter financials, and the Diebold elections division seemed to be cleaning house.
Wynne was a citizen volunteer then – she is now a full-time investigator for Black Box Voting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501c(3) consumer protection group for elections.
Diebold, a company that boasts of its security, had made no attempt to shred the documents, or protect them in any way. Instead, the company was in the habit of discarding its internal records in various
publicly available locations -- an apparent violation of the management requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The first batch of documents is posted here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/2197/4466.html
(We’ll come back to the document stash in a minute.)
DIEBOLD DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN GALLINA MONEY
In May, Black Box Voting broke the story of A! CG Group, LLC, which has been funneling money from Diebold into the pockets of . . . someone.
The ‘G’ in ACG stands for Gallina – Pasquale “Pat” Gallina. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Gallina was caught giving $10,000 to the Franklin County Republican Party, handed off through the Franklin
County Director of Elections. The Dispatch also contains a report of a $50,000 donation by Gallina to Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s political interests.
Diebold, according to the Akron Beacon Journal, denies any involvement in the donations by Gallina, pointing to “Celebrezze & Associates” and vowing to fire that organization (set up by Anthony Celebrezze,
now deceased) if it is proved to have “provided the check in the name of Diebold.”
Excerpts from the above news articles can be found here (scroll down):
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/7696.html
Let us now dissect the s! pin:
1. The money was flowing through ACG Group LLC.
A few dollars may also have wandered into Gallina’s
pocket through “Celebrezze & Associates,” but the large,
UNDISCLOSED cash was flowing through ACG Group LLC,
an entity Diebold has not uttered a word about.
2. Who in their right mind would write a check “in
the name of DIEBOLD?” According to the Dispatch story,
Gallina showed up at the Franklin County elections
office with a check in hand and said "I'm here to give
you $10,000. Who do I make it payable to?” Gallina
claims the money was his own.
However, another principal of ACG Group LLC is Juan
Andrade (the ‘A’ in ACG). Andrade told Black Box Voting
on videotape that Diebold money is paid to him directly,
and Diebold money also goes through ACG Group, for
purposes that are largely for “persuasion.” (click
the VIDEO camera picture at Black Box Voting (.ORG)
and select “Cook County Money Tra! il” to clips of
Andrade talking about Diebold and ACG Group)
More details of Andrade and Gallina and Ohio money
dealings can be found here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/7638.html
99 PAGES OF NEW DOCUMENTS REVEAL MORE PROBLEMS
Diebold financial documents found by Black Box Voting
investigator Kathleen Wynne reveal questionable
payments, and show that some items may have been
untruthfully reported to government authorities.
A document, first published online by Black Box Voting
in July 2004, exposes large payments to entities
investigated for unusual payments to political figures.
Black Box Voting has identified a $144,000 payable to
“Lottery Services of Georgia,” which was one of 16
companies found to have received "pass-through"
payments from GTECH in a 1995 probe. The same document,
and others, show $20,000 per month payments to Andrade,
Gallina’s partner in the Diebold-funded A! CG Group.
Accounts payable document:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/diebold/accts-payable1.pdf
Documents also show payments to California lobbying
firm Rose & Kindel, whose executive recently popped
up with an appointment in new California Secretary of
State Bruce McPherson’s administration. The payment,
over $45,000, does not match the amount reported by
Diebold for the same period (around $7,000).
http://www.bbvdocs.org/moneytrail/rose-kindel-pymts.pdf
(copies of Diebold disclosures to California can be found here):
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/4447.html
In another document, an executive memo, Diebold execs
admit to a culture of ethics problems, and you can
sense the gnashing of teeth as they describe trying
to explain to the Diebold audit committee about the
lying and obfuscating that went on during California
Secretary of State Kevin Shelley’s administration.
The memo states tha! t this cost the company dearly,
resulting in a $3 million loss for the year.
http://www.bbvdocs.org/diebold/confidential-exec-memo1.pdf
A document from Coconino County, Arizona describes
refusal to pay Diebold’s bill due to quality problems
with the machines.
http://www.bbvdocs.org/diebold/coconino.pdf
A hand-written note asks why voting machines originally
sold to Canada were re-sold as “new,” tracing serial
numbers to Mendocino County and LHS (a company that
services Diebold accounts in New England.)
http://www.bbvdocs.org/diebold/mendocino-sold-used.pdf
Note that another voting organization,
http://www.countthevote.org, has unearthed other
devastating documents revealing specific failures
in Georgia in 2002.
Additional information about problems with Georgia’s
Diebold touch-screens, and links to The Count the Vote
documents, can be found here:
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/7646.html
The GEMS central tabulator program has been pummeled
by computer programmers for its flawed, hack-friendly
design. Documents found by Black Box Voting show
flabbergasting pricing for GEMS.
(Click here to see $325,000 price quote for GEMS
on the bid worksheet for Sacramento County, California):
http://www.bbvdocs.org/diebold/sacramento-estimates.pdf
For a company that sells its voting system to unions
(especially the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers), both security flaws and union-bashing tactics
should give union members a moment of pause.
Latest security failures outlined in this one-sheet: http://www.bbvdocs.org/general/BBVreport-1sheet.pdf
Union-squashing tactics shown in this planning sheet:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/diebold/union-busting1.pdf.
(See page 3, plans to “research Teamsters Local 38 as to
finances, misconduct etc).
Additional documents, and analysis of the current
ones, will appear at http://www.blackboxvoting.org
throughout this week.
Folks, it is YOUR tax dollars that pays for these
shenanigans. Diebold recently achieved statewide
touch-screen sales for Mississippi, Utah and Ohio.
We may not win this battle by being “polite” and
“working within the system.” The system has been
broken for some years now.
We need to rekindle our confidence as Americans –
Kathleen Wynne, an ordinary citizen, has shown
that simple actions can have lasting repercussions.
It sometimes seems that we have an inferiority
complex – instead of believing in our own innate
good judgement, we continue to “leave it up to
the experts.”
It is the experts who got us into this mess. It
is the experts who certified Diebold and the other
machines (see http://www.blackboxvoting.org.BBVreport
for a devast! ating technical report showing just how
flawed these systems are.) It is the “experts” who
gave us the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). With this
kind of help, maybe we need to go back to basics.
To participate in discussions of your local elections,
and these issues, make friends with the “FORUMS” tab
on our home page: http://www.blackboxvoting.org.
Let us hear from you. Together, let’s fight this beast.
* * * *
All investigations, actions, and the Web site itself
are funded solely by citizen donations.
To donate: Send check to 330 SW 43rd St Suite K, PMB 547,
Renton WA 98055 or donate by credit card:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
* * * *
NEWS REPORTERS:
Contact info – 425-793-1030, 206-354-5723, or 206-335-7747
bev@blackboxvoting.org or Kathleen@blackboxvoting.org
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