File Sharing Pits Copyright Against Free Speech
Diebold Election Systems, which makes voting machines, is waging legal war against grass-roots advocates, including dozens of college students, who are posting on the Internet copies of the company’s internal communications about its electronic voting machines. …
Diebold has become a favorite target of advocates who accuse it of partisanship: company executives have made large contributions to the Republican Party and the chief executive, Walden W. O’Dell, said in an invitation to a fund-raiser that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.’’ …
“Are these companies staffed by folks completely ignorant of computer security,” she said, “or are they just blatantly flaunting that they can breach every possible rule of protocol and still sell voting machines everywhere with impunity?” …
“It’s very different from the way that Diebold has been doing things.” Mr. Rubin, who has received a cease-and-desist notice from Diebold because of his research, said, “The solution is to stop selling insecure voting machines and not to continue threatening students who are only trying to protect our democracy.”
From one of the internal memos:
“I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16022 when it was uploaded. Will someone please explain this so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of standing here “looking dumb”.” [source: http://chroot.net/s/lists/support.w3archive/200101/msg00068.html ]
Here is another memo excerpt (and link to them all):
Re: jresult doubles the votes – in 1-17-7-3
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 [mjh: two weeks before Bush v Gore]
We ran central count totals of 134 ballots and it shows as 268 votes on the Jview.exe.
Scoop: Diebold Memos Disclose Florida 2000 E-Voting Fraud
DELAND, Fla., Nov. 11 – Something very strange happened on election night to Deborah Tannenbaum, a Democratic Party official in Volusia County. At 10 p.m., she called the county elections department and learned that Al Gore was leading George W. Bush 83,000 votes to 62,000. But when she checked the county’s Web site for an update half an hour later, she found a startling development: Gore’s count had dropped by 16,000 votes, while an obscure Socialist candidate had picked up 10,000–all because of a single precinct with only 600 voters.
– Washington Post Sunday , November 12, 2000 ; Page A22
E-voting flap sparks legal threats
In one series of e-mails, a senior engineer dismisses concern from a lower-level programmer who questions why the company lacked certification for a customized operating system used in touch-screen voting machines.
The Federal Election Commission requires voting software to be certified by an independent research lab.
In another e-mail, a Diebold executive scolded programmers for leaving software files on an Internet site without password protection.
“This potentially gives the software away to whomever wants it,†the manager wrote in the e-mail.
March contends the public has a right to know about Diebold security problems.