Walden O'Dell, the CEO of Diebold Inc., the maker of electronic voting machines, wrote in an August 14, 2003 letter inviting people to a $1000 a plate fundraiser for President Bush to be held at O'Dell's mansion in Ohio, that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." The problem is that Diebold makes the electronic voting machines that have been at the center of election fraud disputes in Georgia, and other states.

Now, the Maryland Gazette newspaper reports:

--"An e-mail found in a collection of files stolen from Diebold Elections Systems' internal database recommends charging Maryland 'out the yin-yang,' if the state requires Diebold to add paper printouts to the $73 million voting system it purchased.

--"The e-mail from 'Ken,' dated Jan. 3, 2003, discusses a Baltimore Sun article about a University of Maryland study of the Diebold system:

--"'There is an important point that seems to be missed by all these articles: they already bought the system. At this point they are just closing the barn door. Let's just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts.'

--"'Ken' later clarifies that he meant 'out the yin-yang,' adding, 'any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive.'"

?!&$#)!

Posted by Laura at December 13, 2003 11:51 AM