“Voting machines should have verifiable paper trails that are reliable and secure. Those guidelines could be used by many states that require electronic voting machines that create a paper trail.

     Security of software and other computer technology used in voting machines should be assured."

     Yesterday, Walden O'Dell stepped down as the CEO of Diebold just as shareholders filed securities fraud litigation against Diebold after stock prices plummeted.  The most recent Diebold quarterly report confessed to shareholders that earnings and share value was down due to citizen litigation and security and reliability concerns.

     Diebold is the controversial voting machine manufacturing corporation,
from whom Maryland purchased 22,000 voting machines for a price-tag
exceeding 100 million dollars.

     "We have outsourced our election system to what could be the next Enron said Alex Zeese,” organizer for TrueVoteMD.  “How can we expect Diebold to fulfill their contract obligations with so many other problems facing the company?"

      "Paperless voting like Maryland’s Diebold system should be rejected.  We should return to the tried-and-true precinct-based optical scan systems used by 30% of voters in the 2004 election," said Linda Schade, Executive Director of TrueVoteMD.  In fact, many Maryland counties used optical scan before Diebold was imposed on them.  It is time for the legislature to act.”