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Jim Siegel , Robert Ruth and Robert Vitale, The Columbus Dispatch August 14, 2005
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.
Chavanne, who no longer works with Diebold, denies the money was meant to influence Gwinn, though he acknowledges Diebold dispatched him to Athens County because she preferred machines built by Diebold's competitor, Election Systems & Software.
A Dispatch survey of county elections boards found that, in its drive to become the No. 1 vendor of voting machines in Ohio and take a piece of the $116 million allocated to the state, Diebold and its associates did more than just pitch its product:
• 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.
• The company sent a letter to several members of the Licking County
Chamber of Commerce, asking them to pressure the local elections board
into choosing Diebold, which operates a manufacturing plant near
Newark.
• Diebold hired three top Capitol Square lobbyists, luring Paul Tipps,
Neil Clark and Dennis Wojtanowski away from competitor ES&S.
Tipps is a former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party; Clark was
once finance director for Ohio Senate Republicans; Wojtanowski was
once a Democratic member of the Ohio House.
"We helped (ES&S) for a couple of years, but they didn't want to put
the resources into Ohio to win," Clark said.
Facing a public-relations nightmare after chief executive Walden
O'Dell wrote a 2003 Republican fund-raising letter vowing to help
"deliver" Ohio for President Bush in 2004, Diebold barred about 200
executives and elections-division workers from all political activity
except voting.
Mike Jacobsen, spokesman for the North Canton company, said Diebold
wanted no money contributed in its name, overtly or implied. He said
the company didn't know about and doesn't condone the $10,000
contribution from Gallina or any other contributions made by its
consultants.
"In terms of political impartiality, they were very aware of our
approach in that regard," Jacobsen said. "The spirit of that approach
and those policies was meant to prevent any untoward activity."
Diebold is not alone in its extra efforts to secure voting-machine
contracts across Ohio.
In September 2003, ES &S treated some county officials to free Dave
Matthews Band concert tickets and limousine rides. That prompted the
Ohio Ethics Commission to send a letter to all 88 elections offices,
reminding them that it is illegal to accept gifts from vendors.
"This is a competitive process, and we anticipate that all vendors
will do what they can to convince counties to do business with them,"
said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State J. Kenneth
Blackwell. "We would hope that county board of election members would
exercise good judgment and discretion."
Some are concerned that the efforts of Diebold and others could
further damage the public's already-fragile confidence in the state's
election system.
Richard G. Milleson, a Democrat and chairman of the Harrison County
elections board, said the Damschroder incident "has cast a cloud" over
the ethics of voting-machine deals.
Rodney J. Hedges, chairman of the Hocking County Republican Party and
a member of the county's elections board, said voters are suspicious
of any company whose agents donate to county campaign funds.
"If you take campaign money, it's pay to play," he said.
Gwinn said she was taken by surprise when, at the end of his visit,
Chavanne offered to donate to the county's operating fund — which, at
the time, could accept secret donations.
"He indicated he had been making contributions to other county
operating funds," she said. "I said we didn't have such a thing, and I
wasn't interested. At that point, he offered to make the contribution
directly to me. I said, 'Absolutely not.' "
Chavanne denies ever offering money directly to Gwinn or to the operating fund.
"I wasn't trying to do anything but help the party," said Chavanne, a
veteran Ohio Democratic politico. "By that part of the conversation,
it was clear she wasn't changing her mind."
Working with Gallina and the consulting firm Celebrezze & Associates,
Chavanne said he met with Democrats in Ohio, while Gallina met with
Republicans. Chavanne made contributions to other counties but said
people understood the money was from him personally.
"Diebold, if they were involved with that, it wouldn't be a proper
activity," he said. "They weren't that kind of a company. They didn't
know anything about politics."
J. Michael King, chairman of the Licking County Democratic Party and
the county's elections board, said Diebold went overboard there.
"They would have been better off letting us make our decision on our
own," he said.
A letter from the company to local business owners stressed that while
Diebold operates a local plant, the county elections board was
considering choosing a rival manufacturer.
"Our Ohio-based company paid almost $13 million in annual taxes in
2002," the letter said. "If you are inclined to support us in this
effort, . . . make your views known to the Licking County Board of
Elections."
King said he and others were flooded with calls and letters. Jacobsen,
of Diebold, called it "positive communications" from people who wanted
the board of elections to buy locally.
The Licking County board is currently locked in a 2-2 tie, but Diebold
will win either way. The disagreement is about whether to go with the
company's touch-screen system or opticalscan paper ballots.
King said he also met with Gallina. While the Diebold agent did not
directly talk of campaign donations, King said, "He kept referring to
his supporting the troops that support him."
Joe Kidd, an attorney and former Lucas County elections director who
represents Gallina, said neither he nor Gallina would comment for this
story.
In an interview with The Dispatch last month, after Damschroder first
spoke publicly about their January 2004 encounter, Gallina said the
$10,000 he donated to the Franklin County Republican Party was his own
money.
The donation had nothing to do with Diebold, he said, and he blamed
questions about it on ES &S and ethnic bias against him as an
Italian-American.
The Franklin County Board of Elections voted unanimously Monday to buy
4,546 touchscreen voting machines made by ES&S. The federal government
will pay almost $12.3 million for them, and the county will kick in
$2.8 million.
The 31 counties that have yet to choose have until Sept. 15. The
entire state is expected to be using either touch-screen or
optical-scan systems by the May 2006 election.
Harkins, the Clark County GOP chairman, said he sat down with four
Diebold representatives in April at Figlio in Grandview Heights.
He could not recall their names, but he remembered their message — his
county should choose Diebold because it's an Ohio-based company. The
county board had already chosen ES&S, of Omaha, Neb.
"They were upset because they didn't feel like they were fairly
considered," Harkins said. "They really came in and told us that if we
didn't buy their equipment, we weren't good Ohioans."
Angered by what he termed "heavy-handed" tactics, Harkins said he paid
his bill and walked out before finishing his meal.
"If Diebold wants to have a home-team advantage, you just can't bully
people around," he said.
jsiegel@dispatch.com |
