To win contract, Diebold offers the state a carrot

Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau
08/10/03

Columbus - In the cutthroat battle over Ohio's election-machine upgrade, Ohio-based Diebold Inc. upped the ante on its competitors last week by playing the hometown card.

Diebold - under fire nationally for purported security flaws in its touch-screen voting system - offered to consider building all its voting machines for Ohio in-state if it wins a statewide contract, a company spokesman confirmed.

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Diebold's proposal was significant because none of its rivals in the war over rights to sell voting machines in Ohio can match such an offer. Not one has a production facility, as Diebold does, in Ohio.

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Competitors theorized that Diebold made the attractive offer to Blackwell's negotiating team because the company is nervous over bad publicity it has received nationally.

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Just last week, Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. ordered a review of Diebold's touch-screen voting system, putting a just-reached $55.6 million contract with 19 Maryland counties in limbo.

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Political insiders say it would be virtually impossible - given the firm's political connections - for Blackwell, a Republican, to not have Diebold on his final list.

Diebold chief executive Walden O'Dell is a generous contributor to Republican campaigns and fund-raisers, from the Republican National Committee and White House on down.

He and his wife donated a combined $8,500 to Gov. Bob Taft between June 2001 and October 2002, state records show, and Taft subsequently appointed O'Dell to the board of trustees at Ohio State University.

W.R. "Tim" Timken, one of Ohio's most influential Republicans, is on Diebold's board. Members of the Timken family contributed almost $66,000 to Republican campaigns in Ohio from 2000 to 2002.

Also, former White House chief of staff John Sununu, a longtime political supporter of Blackwell's, visited Ohio at one point to discuss forming a joint venture to help promote Diebold in its former incarnation as Global Election Systems.

Editor's Notes:
Holy conflict of interest! I smell some big, fat, republican RATS, don't you?
And way to go, Maryland, for having the brains to put the brakes on!

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