Voting machine controversy

08/28/03

Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.

Editor's Note: Now, I ask you ... if you were the chief executive of a company that produces the machines that can literally control the fate of this country, and if the software for those machines had just been exposed nationwide to be as secure as a piece of swiss cheese, would you not think twice about sending out a letter brazenly announcing your devotion to an unelected fraud and your commitment to DELIVER Ohio's electoral votes to same? Not only should Diebold machines be legally banned from use in every state (and every country, for that matter!), but this crook should be investigated and forced to reimburse all states for money paid for these machines so that they can replace them with optical scanners or whatever THE PEOPLE decide is best for their state. Then there should be a full-blown investigation of ALL elections that have involved the use of Diebold machines to try to determine just how many elections that this criminal operation has DELIVERED to the republican corporate cartel already.

Who is going to FINALLY step up to the plate and start rounding up these criminals who have stolen our country and put them in the slammer where they belong? How can it be legal for ANYONE to own voting machines which have software that can tabulate the results in favor of anyone they wish without verifiable records and shamelessly donate large sums of money to the republican party, hold fundraisers for the republican party, and announce proudly that they will DELIVER the election to the candidate of their choice, all the while telling the whole country that their machines and software are perfectly safe and secure? And on top of that, having government contacts who will make sure that the states buy their machines exclusively? HOW can all that be LEGAL?

The people of the United States must wake up and understand that this issue is going to determine whether or not America will be a democracy governed by the people who choose their own representatives, or whether we have a dictatorship owned lock, stock, and barrel by the republican party. Unless and until they get that message, all the campaigning, donations, meetups, and hard work in the world is not going to make one bit of difference, because if the elections continue to be rigged, then our votes are useless, and our fate is already sealed.

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