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Diebold and ES&S together count 80% of our electronic vote. ES&S is the number one with two-thirds of the vote counting software and the biggest supplier of touch screen machines. Sequoia - with one-third of the voting machines on the market - is usually regarded as number two. Or Diebold. Depends who you ask. There is cloaked secrecy surrounding ownership and details about the companies, but investigative research scraping the tip of the iceberg has discovered enough to set anyone’s hair on fire...

In December 2003, Ohio - of all places - conducted a comparative study of four electronic voting systems’ vendors. The figures were revealing; ES&S led the pack with a total of 17 general security risks found, but had the lowest number of “very high security risks”-- only one, and that was the feature that could add multiple votes to the final count without warning. Diebold and Sequoia tied for second worst, each with 15 reported general risks. Five of Diebold’s were rated “very high” and 3 of Sequoia’s. Ironically, Hart Intercivic, one of the lesser used systems, rated well with only 10 general risks, however 4 of those were identified as ”very high risk.”

You may be surprised to learn that there is currently NO Federal Agency that has regulatory authority or controls over the multi-billion dollar elections industry. There are NO government standards or restrictions on who can sell and service voting machines and voting systems. Virtually anybody with money and know-how can get into the business of counting our vote! This might help explain why we keep running into criminals, political candidates, defense contractors, and other odd bedfellows in the mix when we examine the rosters of our election companies.

They are privately owned companies, some by foreign nationals, with multi-million dollar contracts, haunted by the presence of convicted felons in high places, dummy front companies, even mob connections. Yes, the people involved in the Corporations counting our American vote could be cast members in any given episode of the Sopranos. Companies shuffling name changes, “shared” executives moving back and forth between them, sales representatives from New Jersey crime families bribing public officials, ex-felons writing computer code.... it’s anything but boring being in the electronic vote industry.

Republican Computer expert, IT Auditor Chuck Herrin proclaims, “I am by trade a professional white-hat Hacker.. .so I know how easily systems can be breached, especially by insiders. Roughly 80% of all computer crimes are perpetrated by insiders, so that’s the best place to look first. When the insiders also write the code and roll out the machines… there’s NO QUESTION that they have too much power and should not be trusted---whether they support my party or not. It’s called ‘segregation of duties’ and it’s vital for system integrity.”

So, why is it that Karl Rove has predicted a Republican dynasty for the next 40 years?

“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.”

--H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

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ELECTION SYSTEMS & SOFTWARE (ES&S)

ES&S - The number one company, located in Omaha, Nebraska. A veritable one-stop shopping outfit to the voting industry... Manages voter registration, ballot printing, voting machinery, programming, tabulation of vote counts, and final reporting of results for 61 million Americans in 48 states... They are also the number one provider of Touch Screen voting machines in America, and tabulated 56% of the U.S. vote for President.

Company Information—Top Secret!

Aldo Tesi occupies the seat of CEO and President of ES&S. Mr. Tesi comes from the Credit Card business, which is ironic, only in its being a business that relies on paper receipts to verify transactions.... something ES&S voting equipment in America has not been able to do—

VP Tom Eschberger came to ES&S from the former BRC Texas Company, after receiving immunity for his involvement in an Arkansas fraud case. Tom’s partner at BRC was indicted in the scandal that involved laundering money and voting machine sales. His partner went to Federal Prison and Tom went on to ES&S. In the same case, Arkansas Secretary of State Bill McCuen pled guilty to felony charges for taking bribes and kickbacks and also went to prison in 2002.

In 2000, Washington DC journalist Christopher Bollyn, was working on a piece entitled, “The Death of Democracy”, investigating two-way computer modems found in electronic voting machines. Bollyn had learned that the ES&S vote counting equipment, or tabulators – “Precinct Ballot Counters 2100” (PBC’s) - could be communicated with while the counting was underway by anyone with a modem-equipped computer. He also discovered that the PBC is run by a pre-programmed 512-K memory card that essentially “tells the tabulator what to do.”

Oddly, the programmed memory cards used in ES&S Tabulators are not supplied by IBM or Panasonic, but instead by the small firm of a Russian immigrant - Alex Kantarovich. His company is called Vikant. From the Vikant site, we see that this modest Illinois Company, founded in 1996, has only 3 employees. Again, ES&S was responsible for 61 million Americans’ votes.

Since 2002, Mr. Kantarovich is also Chief Strategist for Aton Capital, a Russian investment group, which provides him a platform to expound on Russian markets, blue chips, and theYukos Oil scandal wherein Russia’s wealthiest man, the head of Yukos, is arrested at gunpoint in 2003 and jailed indefinitely for tax fraud. Kantarovich however opines that the whole affair was a calculated political move “designed to keep the oligarchs on a short leash ahead of elections.” (Russian Presidential elections were in March, 2004) The Yukos owner is a known political opponent of Putin and speculations abound that he was being punished or muted. An interesting side note, this billionaire prisoner also once sat on the board of the infamous Carlyle Company as an energy advisor.

In another editorial piece, on behalf of Aton, Kantarovich even mentions Russia’s “clumsy involvement in the Ukraine election.”

So Bollyn tracked down Kantarovich to query him about the hidden internal modems and the Vikant memory cards for ES&S’s Central Tabulators.

Upon questioning as to the origin of the cards, Kantarovich responds to Bollyn, “I cannot disclose where the cards are made---they are not made in America.” And, when asked where he’d worked prior to the memory card business, he offers, “I don’t want to disclose that information.” Lastly, he was questioned how his product came to be chosen over others. And Kantarovich, ever the open book, regrets that this is,”-- inside information that I cannot disclose.” Aside from providing a tooth-pulling interview, the Soviet memory card man appears less than forthcoming regarding his particular piece of the ES&S puzzle.

The Sunday morning after the interview, Kantarovich phoned Bollyn to impart this not so thinly veiled threat to him: “I don’t want anything to happen to my company, to you, or to me,” he said in his thick Russian dialect. And then he repeated it again before hanging up. Bollyn immediately reported it to the local police as a death threat. Flashbacks to Boris and Natasha of The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show spring to mind...

ES&S former Vice President, Steve Bolton, told the Wireless News in January, 2002, “The iVotronic system uses CDMA (code division multiple access) and CDPD (cellular digital packet data) wireless technology to send the tabulations from ballots to an elections board or central election site.” Thus we have tabulations sent wireless...

The ES&S tabulators’ internal modems are manufactured by Novatel Wireless, a California company related to Novatel, Inc., a Canadian satellite communications company. A spokesman for Novatel Wireless, told Bollyn that the tabulators run the risk of being hacked into “anytime they’re plugged in”....if the hacker knows the computers IP address. When asked who owned Novatel, the spokesman replied, “I have no idea.”

So, after all this, it should come as no surprise, with a company policy of strict secrecy, that Election Systems & Software refuse to disclose publicly who actually owns ES&S.

We know the Omaha World Herald plays a significant role. The World Herald Company, among other things, owns a communications network with databases containing personal information on nearly everyone in the U.S.--Including race, age, and political preferences.

Let’s examine ES&S’s origins for more.

Todd Urosevich, current Vice President of aftermarket sales at ES&S, along with his brother Bob, was originally staked into the election business (Data Mark) by wealthy Republican supporters, the Ahmanson family. Howard Ahmanson, who had major holdings in ES&S since its earlier incarnation, then called “AIS”, is a Christian Reconstructionist who has stated in the Orange County Register his goal of instilling Biblical Law throughout America in place of current Constitutional Law. His openly advocated and radical plan for the theocratic takeover of America includes --death penalty for homosexuals, stoning of sinners, banning women from public office, and citizenship excluded for all non-Christians in America. Again, more than half of the Urosevich’s startup capital was funneled from the Ahmansons. (ESS- Ahmanson link)

McCarthy Company bought the Ahmanson’s shares out in 1987.

Let’s back up a step and trace the convoluted outline of the company’s history. A Texas election company-- “Cronus Industries”-- morphed into “Business Records Corp” or BRC. A former BRC owner was Carolyn Hunt, of the Hunt oil family, which provided start up money for the Council for National Policy / CNP. Some CNP members include Oliver North, former Klu Klux Klan member Richard Shoff, Major General John Singlaub, and other Iran-Contra notables, along with Reverend Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, Trent Lott, Ralph Reed, Jeffrey and Joseph Coors, Tim LaHaye, Paul Weyrich and Grover Norquist. BRC and three other companies were later purchased by AIS (American Information Systems) in 1997 to form--- ES&S.

Now Todd Urosevich, bankrolled with Ahmanson money, had started in the election equipment business in the 1980’s at Data Mark with his brother, programmer Bob Urosevich. (For added irony, the Urosevich brothers happen to be second generation Ukrainians...) For some time, Bob ran Diebold Election Systems (see below), the company often quoted along with Sequoia, as the number two in the field. In fact, Bob is one of the characters credited with oversight of Diebold’s original software development. Stay with me, because this is where the plot begins to thicken! When Bob Urosevich departed from ES&S and headed over to Diebold, he was replaced by, none other than...Chuck Hagel.

Vote For Me

Senator Chuck Hagel, former ES&S Chairman, (AIS at the time- just prior to the 1997 buyout), was running the company in 1995 that would count his votes in his amazing surprise victory in 1996—the first Republican Senate winner in Nebraska in 24 years! Local papers called it a “stunning upset.” It was his first race for the Senate; he had been living out of state for 20 years, and was running against Nebraska’s popular former Governor, Ben Nelson. Nelson was leading in the polls by 65% to 18%, yet Hagel came from behind and won at 56%...

In both Hagel’s 1996 and 2002 elections, ES&S counted 85% of his winning votes.

His opponent in the 2002 re-election, aware of the ES&S connections, requested a hand recount of the vote, but Election Officials refused. Senator Hagel retains a one to five million dollar stake in ES&S parent company, McCarthy Group... as he contemplates a run for the Presidency himself in 2008. Incidentally, Hagel’s campaign Treasurer for his successful run was none other than the founder of the McCarthy Group himself, Michael McCarthy—who also sits on the Board of ES&S. And did I forget to mention that Senator Hagel was also President of said McCarthy Group from 1992 to 1996?

All Congressional lawmakers are required to fill out annual personal financial disclosures—turns out Chuck Hagel fudged a bit in his in 1996 filing, declining to mention ES&S/ McCarthy holdings as well as his position as Chairman of the election company, then called AIS. It came down to an argument about “definitions” of types of excepted “investment funds.” …It depends on what the definition of “funds” is…

Well - the Senate Ethics Committee was troubled, and Victor Baird, its Director, sent the Senator a letter in 1997 requesting further clarification. It appears there was a back and forth of documentation and eventually a convenient redefinition. Suddenly, this seems to be becoming new policy in Washington DC...When the rules don’t suit you - redefine the rules. This same technique has ruined many a fine Monopoly game for me.

In 2003, after 16 years as Director, Baird resigned to be replaced by Robert Walker. After meeting with Hagel’s staff, Walker decided to loosen the disclosure restrictions, and redefine “excepted investment funds”-- thereby letting Hagel off the hook. According to The Hill, “…the newly weakened definition makes it virtually impossible to determine whether Hagel - or any other lawmaker - must report investments in non-traded private companies.”

D.C. reporter, Alexander Bolton, was about to file his story on the Hagel/ ES&S connection when, just before the article was to appear in The Hill, he received an unexpected visit from Hagel’s Chief of Staff and a “prominent GOP lawyer.” They warned him to change, soften, or kill the story. It was Mr. Bolton’s first experience with an intimidation tactic like this in his four years of reporting on Capitol Hill. He ran the story anyways.

So, we already have two journalists threatened by ES&S or their representatives and we’ve barely begun their story. Clearly, this is a company that does not welcome the scrutiny of the free press.

Product Report Card

ES&S’s Central Tabulators counted around 29 Counties in Ohio in this last election.

In Sandusky County, Ohio, some of the ballots in nine separate precincts were discovered to have been counted twice by ES&S Optical Scanners. Between 20 to 30 ES&S Touch Screen machines in Ohio’s Mahoning County needed to be recalibrated during the voting process due to the opposite candidate receiving the intended vote. Neighboring Pennsylvania experienced the same results. Voters testify that the machines seemed to be set with a “default to Bush,” regardless of the candidate chosen. (touch screen switches)

ES&S counted 2 of the 3 controversial Counties in Florida this year as well, (Broward and Miami-Dade), covered in the University of California Berkeley Study, whose findings claim “voting ‘irregularities’ resulted in a so-far inexplicable 130,000- 260,000 additional votes for President Bush.” The third County, Palm Beach, was counted by Sequoia (See more below). It appears the ES&S Touch Screens required more poll worker supervision and hands on operational skills than the Sequoia equipment, by all accounts. Florida election officials complained as far back as the 2002 elections that ES&S did not provide adequate training or logistical support.

ES&S had supplied Miami-Dade and Broward with their iVotronic Touch Screens in the 2002 September Primary elections with woeful results. It was declared, by ES&S, to be the largest single purchase of election equipment in the history of the U.S. Miami-Dade spent $24 million for four model 650 central count tabulation machines, and 7250 new touch screens, which they later debated scrapping entirely after encountering massive problems. Voters complained that Touch Screens defaulted to Jeb Bush.

According to local NBC reporter, Deborah Sherman, she witnessed workers at Miami election headquarters pulling votes off memory chips because of ballot cartridges that were blank. The previous April, one city’s machines (Medley), had tallied incorrect totals, resulting in a wrong winner being declared. Elections Supervisor David Leahy resigned after the pressure over the problems with ES&S grew too great.

Miami-Dade’s Inspector General Christopher Mazella, had numerous complaints and misgivings about the contract with ES&S and the system’s poor performance. He stated in 2003 that running an election with the iVotronic machines required so many poll workers and technical support that it cost five times what it used to cost them the old way.... punch cards. But of course punch card machines had been decertified by the Legislature in Florida in 2001, following the 2000 debacle.

Along with Miami-Dade, Broward County had ordered 5200 new iVotronicTouch Screens for a cool $17.2 million, despite the misgivings of its then Election Supervisor, Miriam Oliphant. Elected by an overwhelming majority in 2000, (70%), Oliphant was one of the few Florida officials to recommend against using ES&S. She was overruled by Broward county commissioners. During her time as Supervisor, Oliphant had aggressively registered over 300,000 new voters.... 80% of those being Democrats. She is an African American woman, a Democrat, who represented a largely Democratic county.

So why did Jeb Bush suspend her without pay in 2003? He and Glenda Hood accused her of neglect of duties, blaming the September, 2002 election problems on Oliphant, yet both failed to show up and testify when Oliphant took the case to court.

In the 2002 September Primary, some machines were taking up to four hours to boot up, causing long lines to form, and delaying poll openings. One post-election ACLU study showed that the votes of 8.2% of the voters in the Miami precincts studied were not counted. ES&S COO, the ever-chipper Mike Limas’s comment?

“Frankly, in the experience of both Miami-Dade and Broward, the equipment performed very well.”

The evening of the November 5, 2002 Governor’s election, Broward Election Officials proclaimed “The election went well---without a hitch.” But early the next morning it was discovered that a software error had caused over 103,200 votes to go uncounted. A significant hitch, indeed. Broward’s Deputy Election Supervisor attributed the error to “a minor software thing,” and, in spite of everything, the Secretary of State’s Office declared the elections to be “an unqualified success…”

For more intrigue and incest to thicken the plot—the Palm Beach Post reported that ES&S had a secret agreement to kickback a percentage of it profits to the Florida Association of Counties in order to secure contracts with the State. If that weren’t enough to guarantee their success, they also hired former Florida Secretary of State, Sandra Mortham as their Lobbyist. Ms. Mortham, who received commissions for her part on the substantial contract, also happened to be the former running mate of... Jeb Bush.

More on Mortham--- Mortham is the same one who had in 1998 ordered the first famous “purged” list of ineligible voters, rushing it through in a matter of weeks so that it would be in place to prevent 94,000 voters from casting ballots in Jeb Bush’s first successful Governor’s run. Florida paid DBT Company $4 million to compile the data of suspected felons that would be scrubbed from the voter rolls. --The only state to have done so at the time.

Despite the fact that DBT, the creators of the list, had themselves later admitted to gross inaccuracies, and claimed to be certain of only 3000 of those 94,000 named within - that same list was still in place and used for Jeb Bush’s re-election campaign in 2002… despite the victorious NAACP lawsuit and settlement over the list in 2000. The State said they were planning to correct the list and remove the 91,000 names placed in error... but they wouldn’t be able to get it done until after the election. A few weeks to compile the names, and a few years to remove them.

The Miami Herald polls had indicated that data showed black voters would vote against Jeb Bush by four to one. The majority on the scrubbed “suspected felon” list were African Americans. Most of the analysts predicted a tight race, a “squeaker” for Jeb and his opponent. The results, however, were... curiously - Jeb, in a surprise landslide... the first Republican Governor in the history of Florida to win re-election.

For the 2000 Presidential elections, that purged list would be narrowed down to a mere 58,000 names, compiled with the help of Secretary of State Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush. Ninety percent of those named on that list were Democrats.

One more interesting Florida-felon-Jeb Bush twist and I’ll move on. It was reported in the February 7, 2005 issue of Time Magazine, that former convicted Watergate felon Charles Colson - “the man who once advised Richard Nixon to firebomb the Brookings Institution” had gone from prisoner - to evangelist - to recently advising Karl Rove on the Sudan policy. Well, turns out that in 2000, while the NAACP was still in court fighting to get non-felons with-similar-sounding-names-to-felons the right to a vote, Governor Jeb Bush was, at that same time, busy reinstating actual ex-felon Charles Colson’s right to vote that had been stripped from him when he entered prison. And, at least in that case, it didn’t take so long after all......

November 2, 2004, Collier County, Florida had to delay reporting its election results. Their ES&S iVotronic Touch Screens performed well that night, but it was the central tabulator software that was the source of problems. This case helps illustrate what happens with these tabulator programs after the data comes into them from the polling stations. Gary Beauchamp, Collier deputy assistant Supervisor of Elections, stated that the information from the polling stations was “fine.” ...It was only after that data was fed into the Dell computer tabulating system that suspicious discrepancies showed up. The Final Report numbers were off. The cause of the tabulator glitch was not identified.

Company spokesman and current COO, Mike Limas, blamed the bulk of the problems on “human error.” By 2004, this shifting of responsibility for machine malfunctions - away from the ES&S and its products and on to the poll workers - seems to have become company policy de rigeur. And Mr. Limas, as the official ES&S apologist, keeps turning up in the darndest of places---from Venezuela to Iowa--- tacitly pointing fingers at election workers while defending his company’s equipment to the death.

And speaking of Iowa... According to the Wall Street Journal, in one Iowa County election in 2000, an ES&S Optical Scan machine was fed 300 ballots and read out a whopping 4 million votes! Giving new meaning to “Vote early and vote often.”

North Carolina and Florida both reported that once the magic number of 32,767 votes was reached—presto! The machines compensated and began subtracting votes in place of adding. The company admitted to North Carolina that they had been aware of the problem from earlier incidents in Florida, yet they had failed to advise Election Officials.

In 2004, ES&S had all 77 Counties in Oklahoma tied up. The local conservative paper “Tulsa World” reported on November 3, that with 70% of the vote count in, Kerry was winning in 57 of the 77 counties. The Final Results however showed Kerry losing in ALL 77 Counties. (Remember, the Finals come from that hidden, hackable second set of books.) Kerry had lost about 38,000 votes, while Bush had gained an ample 394,000 votes. Rural counties claimed that the machines were counting Kerry’s votes backwards. Seems that the ‘counting backwards’ problem rankled E S & S in more than a few states.

Moving next door to Arkansas, in this past election, we find one county where a code programming error generously offered one candidate running for Constable every single vote, which the opponent knew was wrong as he had voted for himself! Same thing in Lake City, Illinois, where ES&S tabulators reported ZERO votes for the Democratic candidate who, after voting for himself, had minimally incurred one vote. I’m working on one theory that somehow the Democratic votes are just too succulent for the famished tabulators to resist... And so they eat them all.

Another curious Arkansas phenomena - seems a lot of Arkansans weren’t interested in voting for President this past election. The ES&S Optical Scans missed 1 in 6 votes for President in Pike County, and 1 in 10 for the Senate. In Crittendon County, 1 in 8 voters had no choice for President show up on their ballots. The ES&S technician claimed it was due to a “scratch on the sensor.” This curiosity manifested itself in Lubbock, Texas as well, in the March, 2004 Primary election. Over 6900 of 26,000 ballots (more than 25%) accorded NO votes for President. ES&S cited computer tabulator malfunction in this case, and paid for a recount...

In a similar case to Oklahoma’s, in Alabama in 2002, the tabulators had elected the wrong Governor. At the end of Election Day, the Democrat was told he’d won by a small margin, only to wake up the next morning to find the Republican candidate had won by 6300 votes. ES&S’s General Manager blamed the “glitch” on a power surge, or “static electricity” - or perhaps “something else,” adding that 3 other counties had experienced similar problems. Again, notice the vote count changes in the middle of the night when the tabulators seem to ‘change their minds’ about who should be winning...

In the most recent election, in Alabama, again - a controversial Amendment was on the ballot - Amendment 2, which called for the removal of decades old segregation language from the State’s Constitution. ES&S Optical Scanners reportedly had difficulty reading some ballots, and Amendment 2 was narrowly defeated, thus leaving archaic 1901 segregation verbiage still alive in the Alabama Constitution.

And speaking of Amendments, we all remember the Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage added to some ballots last November. Well, it seems in Cass County, North Dakota, voters didn’t need to bother with deciding whether they were for or against it, as the 120,000 ballots - printed by ES&S - had already decided for them! Turns out a “yes” and a “no” vote would both end up approving the Amendment... That should help keep the burgeoning North Dakota gay population down for awhile anyway...

We’re not in Kansas anymore. In 2002, ES&S Tabulators surprised a few Kansas candidates by switching their votes, one for the other. A hand recount discovered that the loser was actually the winner - by a landslide. Similarly, in 2002, in Texas’ Scurry County, ES&S Optical Scanners gave two Republican Commissioners landslide victories. Suspicious poll workers requested a recount of both - it turned out the Democratic challengers had actually won both seats by wide margins.

Secretary of State in New Mexico, Democrat Vigil-Giron, awarded ES&S a multi-million dollar 5-year contract in her state in 2003. Some felt the deal may have been sweetened by the $2500 campaign contribution she received from Ken Carbullido, Sr. VP at ES&S.

Perhaps some of the stickiest ES&S incidents occurred in Indiana this past year (2004), where deceptions by the company resulted in hearings, the posting of a $10 million bond, and an ES&S employee or two resigning after allegedly being instructed to perpetrate fraud for the company. ES&S supplies 41 Counties in Indiana, but a few of them suffered serious injuries.

Johnson County, Indiana, maintains that ES&S misled County election officials on several occasions. ES&S unapproved firmware had already been used in a municipal election without the Board having been informed. Before the 2004 Primaries, the company claimed that they were performing ‘routine maintenance’ on their touch screens, when, in fact, they were actually switching software to replace the unapproved version with the certified version.

Marion County Clerk Anne Sadler, charged that the company lied to her personally about swapping out uncertified software on its Optical Scan machines. Other County clerks reported similar shenanigans - technicians said to be working on equipment to perform “routine maintenance checks,” that were in reality surreptitiously installing new software. ES&S employee Wendy Orange, in a pang of conscience, revealed that she was instructed to lie to Marion County officials about the purpose of technician’s visits to the Clerk’s offices. ES&S denied the claims and Ms. Orange resigned as a whistleblower in May 2004. ( ESS Illegal Software ) Twenty precincts in Marion ran out of ES&S ballots, resulting in an undetermined number of voters being deprived the right to a vote.

Indiana officials debated terminating the ES&S contract and suing the company for breach of contract, but decided it was too late in the year for a new vendor to be in place by the November, 2 election. As a compromise, the Indiana Election Commission instead ordered ES&S to post a $10 million bond for the May, 2004 Primaries, and to guarantee full certification of all equipment by the November National elections.

November, however, had its share of hitches as well. La Porte County, Indiana, with its 74 precincts lost approximately 50,000 votes due to a “software flaw.” ...The column listing each precinct’s voters read exactly 300 -- for every precinct. That would mean La Porte County had 22,200 voters, when in reality there were over 79,000. ES&S’s attempt to email a new program to the Clerk’s office Election Night proved unsuccessful as well.

Because of the ordeal, Indiana passed laws in 2004 making it illegal to sell any uncertified election systems in the state. In wrapping it up, an Indiana Election Commission official angrily stated to the ES&S representative, “I just think I was absolutely lied to by your CEO...”

[UPDATE] August 15, 2005- ES&S has agreed to pay Marion County Indiana the sum of over $1.2 million in cash, after having charged the County $11.1 million in 2003 for their election equipment, both Optical Scans and Touch Screens, both of which ended up not being fully certified by the State’s Election Commission. County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler stated in the Indianapolis Star,“—We’ve done the right thing”, and, “We’ve gotten money back for the taxpayers.”

In classic election company Public Relations framing, the ES&S spokesperson, Jill Friedman, refused to call the “action” a “settlement.” She has instead labeled it " a redefinition of the company’s contract with the County.” And while ES&S has redefined their relationship with Marion County by a million or so dollars, they are now waiting to see just how many other Indiana Counties would like to follow suit and redefine their contracts with ES&S as well. Johnson County, who shared similar lack of certification issues with Marion County, has representatives who are currently looking into the possibility of litigation....er....I mean, “redefinition of contract” for their county.

But the worst blow of all for ES&S must have been the 2002 and 2004 election debacles at home court in Nebraska where the company resides. Adams County was forced to wait for two days after their 2002 election before any votes could be counted. Software code problems that couldn’t be corrected were blamed for the delay. Even a backup machine brought in had failed to perform. Mike Limas claimed that some “difficult to scan” ballots had exacerbated the problem as well, specifying that they were not related to ES&S....

Then in 2004, Sarpy County Nebraska’s ES&S tabulators doubled half of the precincts’ vote counts - adding 10,000 “phantom votes” to the final tally.

ESS Voting machine problems reported

South American Flavor

ES&S has not confined its business to the United States. They are quite known in Venezuela as well. Venezuela - the third largest supplier of oil to the U.S., the fourth largest oil producing nation, and climbing with a bullet on the State Department’s Top Ten list of Countries We Really Don’t Like. May 2000 - the largest election in Venezuelan history - eleven million voters voting on 7350 ES&S machines, would decide in an historic moment whether Chavez should be reelected or not. When over 400 of the machines wouldn’t perform due to “technical glitches” and software problems... Venezuelans grew increasingly suspicious of the imported American election equipment.

Chavez went so far as to accuse the Americans and ES&S of attempting to destabilize and jeopardize the Venezuelan electoral process. Problems were so bad, the nation’s highest court finally decided to suspend the elections until they could they could be resolved.

A Venezuelan Air Force jet was commandeered to Omaha to pick up ES&S technicians and computers to come salvage the election, which they did. Since the United States had recommended ES&S to Venezuela, Chavez held them responsible. Local protestors shouted down the ES&S technicians-- with “Gringo go home” chants. Chavez ended up winning by a healthy margin (59.7%), but Venezuela decided not to renew their contract with ES&S.

(See Sequoia Voting Systems chapter)

One other noteworthy event about these South American elections: Per Popular Science magazine, ES&S machines had paper trails for them… in the year 2000. Which makes their excuses about not being able to produce them for the U.S. 2004 elections seem disingenuous at best.

“A handful of errors is not bad...” -- Mike Limas, ES&S COO

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DIEBOLD

Diebold, of North Canton, Ohio, has received the lion’s share of publicity in the election fraud story, but is hardly alone in the tangled web of complicity. The Election Systems Division President, until recently, Bob Urosevich, (Todd’s brother—see ES&S) is often credited with overseeing original software development for both ES&S and Diebold Election Systems.

Sometime after the multi-million dollar ‘mix up’ in California, Urosevich was replaced by Tom Swidarski. Even Diebold seems unclear about just when that was, as they can be found citing Urosevich as President in August 2003, then the following month referring to Swidarski as President, and in December 2003, it’s suddenly reversed to Urosevich again. In any case Urosevich did eventually yield to Swidarski who stepped up from a Senior VP position. Swidarski comes from the world of electronic wizardry himself, as a pioneer of biometrics and ATM video screens.

Unlike the parent company in Ohio, Diebold Election Systems, formerly known as “Global Election Systems”, is located in Texas. Global’s former Director, Michael K.Graye, spent four years in prison from 1996-2000 for stock fraud, then went back in again in 2003 for tax fraud and misappropriation of $18 million from four companies. Bob Urosevich got in on the ground floor when Diebold bought out Global as he was President of Global Election Systems at the time.

Yet another interesting but damning fact about the Diebold company-- Their main product is NOT election equipment, but rather ATM machines, of which they are the leading global suppliers. And ticket vending machines. Curiously, BOTH machines produce paper receipts to track transactions made on them... Only the voting machines have had this important tracking feature omitted from the tooling. Remember, Diebold is also the company responsible for providing us with the ubiquitous vote counting equipment—GEMS Tabulators.

*UPDATE: See "Paper Trail of Tears" Chapter for new reports on how Diebold is addressing the issue.

While we, the citizenry, were wringing our hands over the lack of verifiable voting paper records prior to our Presidential election, Diebold company was busily engaged in testing their IDMs (Intelligent Depository Modules) in Utah ATM’s. An IDM is a check imaging feature wherein customers can see the image of their to-be cashed checks displayed on their bank ATM screens. This serves as customer validation of the financial transaction. The check’s image is then printed as a customer receipt when the cash is delivered. Fairly sophisticated technology. Voter ballot verification should be a walk in the park by comparison....

In fact, Diebold’s name is so synonymous with security; they were the sole company entrusted to safeguard America’s Founding Documents. The U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights are now 100% under the watchful, protective eye of Diebold Company. And that’s not all—their website boasts that they protect everything from “countless amounts of currency, to securing the world’s most precious gem, the Hope Diamond....” You would think, with this level of dominance in the field, something as straightforward as protecting our votes would be a fait accompli. Think again.

Diebold is publicly traded and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as ‘DBD’. The Diebold Company itself earns more revenue as a Military Defense Contractor than in the manufacture and sales of voting equipment. But you have to scrutinize their website to learn this information. The more one familiarizes oneself with voting equipment vendors… the more defense contractors and intelligence connections seem to surface.

To get a flavor of what Diebold has been up to this past year in terms of trade show appearances for Governmental and Defense contracting, click here for the FPED (Force Protection Equipment Demonstration) show this past Spring, and then click on “Conduct of the Demonstration” in the bar on the left to see some of the actual demonstrations featured at the show (live ammo, explosions, unmanned aerial flights, etc). Another Diebold show was the GovSec show for Homeland Security and Intel types where you can attend workshops in How To Use Long Range Listening Devices...

Diebold Roll Call

Diebold Company CEO, Wally O’Dell, and longtime Diebold Director and Chairman “Tim” Timken, are steadfast Republican Loyalists and major contributors to Republican candidates, including George W. Bush. Both are members of Bush’s “Pioneers and Rangers” program, donating from $100,000 to over $350,000 respectively to President Bush’s reelection campaign, thereby being invited to the Crawford Ranch in appreciation. Timken’s company and family have contributed over a million dollars to the GOP.

As an aside, word has it from German Der Spiegel magazine, that Tim Timken is to be our newly appointed Ambassador to Germany... despite having zero diplomatic experience and not speaking any German. Diebold announced Timken’s retirement on June 30, 2005. Maybe the Germans will soon be enjoying the capricious temperament of Diebold’s GEMS tabulators as well.

It all got sticky about one year prior to the election, when Wally O’Dell - in a classic “oops” moment--- wrote his now famous letter pledging his commitment to “—help Ohio deliver its electoral votes to President Bush next year.” It didn’t look good... Along with all the lavish Bush Re-election Campaign fundraisers he held at his private 10,000 square foot mansion-- urging $10,000 contributions per guest.... O’Dell, Captain of our voting machinery ship, was having a hard time appearing to be non-partisan.

“The country had a crisis, it was instantly apparent to me that we could help” -- Wally O’Dell, CEO Diebold-- on doing his civic duty following the 2000 elections.

Now, Diebold also maintains a subsidiary in Brazil that manufactures that country’s voting equipment. In fact, Diebold’s initial entry into the election business took place in Carnivale country in October, 1999 when, as an ATM manufacturer, they purchased Brazilian technology company, “Procomp Amazonia Industria Electronica.” Procomp had already manufactured, installed and serviced over 160,000 electronic polling stations used by over 60 million voters in Brazil’s 1998 elections.

ProComp President, since 1997, was one Dr. Eric Jan Roorda, who currently sits on the board of Diebold with Timmy and Wally. A colorful Dutch academic, Dr. Roorda hails from Johns Hopkins and Bellarmine University where he is Professor of History and Political Science. He kept turning up in the oddest of places at the strangest of times... For example, he was in China—immediately after the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989. And in May of 2000, in the crowded streets of the Dominican Republic, after the first democratic elections in 80 years-- celebrating their ousted Dictator amidst throngs of jubilant Dominicans. Or yet again in China, at the same time as the spy plane standoff of 2001. He has authored several books (including “The Dictator Next Door”), speaks fluent Chinese, is Co-Director of the Munson Institute, and is regarded as a foremost authority on American foreign policy. And yet - he winds up on the Board in the voting machine business out of Canton, Ohio...

By the year 2000, Diebold was up and running in Brazil with a $105.5 million dollar contract providing near 200,000 new voting terminals as well as tabulators for 100 million voters. Brazil blazed the trail going 100% digital for their 2000 election. But, it wouldn’t be until 2002, after the acquisition of Global Election Systems, that Diebold would get the chance to test their new voting systems out in America. The experiment proved extremely successful, increasing Global’s former profits by 100 fold. In our most recent election, Diebold’s GEMS tabulators counted approximately 50% of the votes in over 30 states. Their scanners and touch screens accounted for about 35% of the U.S. computerized vote in 2004.

Another person of interest on board at Diebold Elections is the Marketing Director Mark Radke – who also functions as the Diebold chief apologist. His background as a Washington, D.C. Attorney comes in handy when sidestepping the many legal hurdles and pitfalls of the election business. In 2001, he was the Chief of Staff at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Then in 2003, Radke joined the prestigious law firm of Howrey, Simon, Arnold & White to specialize in “corporate responsibility practice”... This same law firm, in January, 2004, was responsible for a big win in the state of Florida for Diebold Election Systems, when the Judge ordered all counties involved in the case to place their orders with Diebold for new voting systems.

It appears that Mark also does volunteer work for Missions Presentations (for Mission Central Church). According to their site, he makes Power Point presentations to Bible Study groups providing the latest news on “what God is doing.” He attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, which states they seek students who are, “committed to Jesus Christ, endowed with necessary gifts for service, and in sympathy with our statements of faith and purpose.”

Cocaine, and Felons, and Prison—Oh my!

My personal favorite Diebold exec. biography is the one of its former Senior Vice President and Director (when it was “Global Election Systems”) ---and Senior Programmer in 2001 and 2002, just prior to the Diebold acquisition-- Jeff Dean. Dean is credited with the “upgrades” to the GEMS programs. According to Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting, besides his work on the tabulator systems, Dean was largely responsible for programming a version of the Optical Scan software that was widely used in our last election. And the Windows CE operating system used by the Touch Screens as well.

It is reported that no less than five of Diebold Election Systems developers are convicted felons, but Dean’s case takes the cake. Beginning in 1982, he was working at a Seattle law firm, Culp, Gunderson & Grader, in accounting systems. In 1988, the firm noticed some discrepancies in their books… Jeff Dean had altered the books and embezzled the money for himself over a two and a half year time frame at the firm. He eventually pled guilty to 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, which are enumerated in his case no. 89-1-04034-1. The record stated that:

"the crimes and their cover up involved a high degree of sophistication and planning in the use and alteration of records in the computerized accounting system that defendant maintained for the victim, and the defendant used his position of trust and fiduciary responsibility as a computer systems and accounting consultant for the victim to facilitate the commission of the offenses—"

Dean was convicted in 1989 and sentenced to six years in prison. As part of his sentence, the Judge ordered Dean to inform any and all future employers of his felony conviction, and instructed him that under no circumstances would he be permitted to handle other people’s money after he was released. Unfortunately for Americans, the Judge’s reprimand fell short of prohibiting Dean from handling other people’s votes...

The GEMS computer tabulating system functions very similarly to the computerized accounting system. According to the report, Dean used his expertise by planting ‘back doors’ in his employer’s software, allowing him to steal nearly half a million dollars over the years all the while evading detection.

Is this starting to sound familiar? See "How GEMS works, Column 2 " chapter if not.

Does it make sense that convicted felons, who don’t even have the right to vote in many states in America, are programming the voting equipment and counting the votes of the rest of us “non-felons”? Do you trust computer voting systems designed by this man? Oh, but he had a good reason for resorting to massive embezzlement... According to Chuck Herrin, Dean needed money in order to pay out on blackmail over a fight he’d been involved in--- where another person died. Well, OK then.

In the summer of 1995, when he was released from prison, Dean went to work at Postal Services, (PSI), a bulk mail company in Washington State that sorts absentee ballots In 1997, Dean and his wife started up a printing company called Spectrum Print & Mail Services.... printing, what else-- Ballots... for Global Election Systems’ Optical Scanners, (soon to be bought out by Diebold).

Global contracted Dean, in 1999, to work on systems’ software and King County Voter registration. In 2000, Global decided to buy out Spectrum- Dean’s Ma & Pa ballot business- lavishing Dean with $1,600,000 in Global stock for the deal. He instantly busied himself with his assignment of ‘perfecting’ the Global Elections Management System---or GEMS central tabulators. And this is when it’s reputed that GEMS grew its additional sets of columns or books. Per Bev Harris, of BlackBoxVoting.org, the GEMS second set of books, felon-designed, and fraud-friendly, were added on and ready to roll immediately preceding the 2000 Presidential election. Timing... such an art.

They must have been exceedingly pleased with Dean’s performance, as he was promoted to Senior Programmer, Senior VP and placed on Global’s Board of Directors at a salary of @ $150,000 per year. Working on his third job since his release from prison, Dean is still not informing his employers of his prior fraud and embezzlement conviction, as the Judge had ordered him to. We don’t know whether or not he is complying with his directive to not handle other’s money.

Jeff & John---Oh, What a Pair!

Global Elections was not faring well financially, and by January 2002 they were acquired by Diebold, for whom they had already been developing systems. Shortly thereafter, word of Dean’s shady past began to surface, and Diebold, in avoidance of an awkward Public Relations moment, demoted Jeff Dean to a Consultant status, replacing him with John Elder—and stating to the AP that Dean was no longer with the company.

This is where the story gets really good! And cozy. Turns out Dean and Elder were old buddies, having met earlier... serving time at the same prison. Elder was sent away for 5 years for cocaine trafficking---across the street from a junior high school. Purportedly, he sold cocaine in order to support his own drug addiction. He was released in 1996 and, like Dean, went to work at Postal Services (PSI) after his release. And, like Dean again, after that, he went to work at Dean’s own company, Spectrum.

So what is this fine man doing for Diebold today? Managing a division, overseeing the printing of our ballots and punch cards. By the way, 68 of Ohio’s 88 Counties voted with punch cards.... and they were ALL counted with electronic tabulators. Jeff and John, the ex-cons, have their hands in oh-so-many voters’ votes.

From Steve Moreland of Diebold, February 4, 2002: “I am pleased to announce that effective today; John Elder will be assuming the role of General Manager of the Printed Products department of Diebold Election Systems, Inc. John brings a wealth of knowledge along with a passion for success to this role which will be essential as we strive to gain market share and improve profitability.”

Remember Diebold had announced to the Associated Press (AP) that Jeff Dean had left the company when they took over from Global in January of 2002. But look here, from the same Steve Moreland speech on February 4, 2002: “---Jeff Dean has elected to maintain his affiliation with the company in a consulting role, reporting to Pat Green. The Diebold Election Division management team greatly values Jeff’s contribution to this business and is looking forward to his continued expertise in this market place.”

All Across the U.S.A

“Diebold system is not only advanced, but 100% safe, and those questioning the systems are misguided...”

-- Tom Swidarski, President Diebold

During the 2002 Midterm Elections, the state of Georgia was blanketed with Diebold Touch Screens and tabulators, much to the chagrin of the popular Democratic Governor and to Senator Max Cleland, who both lost their seats in what the media termed “amazing upsets.” It was the first time a Republican Governor had won the state of Georgia in 134 years! And the first Republican to win Cleland’s seat. Results showed up to 16% vote swings from the last pre-ballot poll numbers. According to Mitofsky/ Edison polling company, a 4% margin of error is normal for state elections, 3% for Nationals.

Senator Max Cleland had headed the Veterans Administration in 1975, was Georgia’s Secretary of State for many years, and was the incumbent Senator, originally elected in 1995. In the bitter 2002 race, opponent Saxby Chambliss made up for his lack of name recognition with negative campaign ads and by having both Bush and Cheney stumping for him on Georgia’s red soil. Cleland had received a Silver and a Bronze star for his heroics in Vietnam where he’d lost both legs and an arm. However, Chambliss challenged his patriotism in TV ads in which Cleland’s face would morph into an image of Saddam Hussein. Ann Coulter would later comment that Cleland should not be referred to as a war hero, because he had lost his limbs in a “routine mission.”

Chambliss was trailing in all the polls right up to the election. American Media Poll from the previous month had Cleland’s 47 to Chambliss’ 41. The Atlanta Journal Constitution - just days before the election - had Cleland 48 to Chambliss 45. Election Day showed Cleland leading consistently by 2-5 points. Yet... Chambliss won by 53 to 46. A 9 to 12 point shift… at the last minute.

And the Democratic Governor, that led by between 9 to 11 points on election day... lost to the Republican as well in another 16 point swing – 45 to 52.

Similarly, in Minnesota, when former VP Walter Mondale ran for the seat of the late Paul Wellstone, who had tragically died just days before the vote - he was defeated in a sweeping last minute vote swing...

Geo