How Do You Say "Diebold" In Ukrainian?

Apparently a lawsuit is being filed in Ohio courts, alleging that Diebold, the manufacturers of the infamous electronic voting machines, tampered with some of their voting records. Link: http://rawstory.com/exclusives/arnebeck_1216.php

We'd all just like to assume that this sort of thing could only happen in other, less evolved nations, that we would never put up with such tactics. Well, we would and we have, even if this lawsuit gets tossed, and even if it turns out that there was tampering, but not nearly enough to turn Ohio. (Bush did, after all, take the state by 117,000 votes, after the recount, which adjusted the spread by about 15,000 votes. Significant, but not result-changing.)

Consider: Diebold's CEO, Walden O'Dell, promised (in an infamous memo O'Dell would come to regret) to "deliver Ohio for the Republican Party". Diebold also retains proprietary rights to their "black box" that stores the data, as well as the operating code. This means they show us -- the people, the government -- whatever they deem necessary to show us. We're on a "need-to-know" basis, see.

Perhaps most damning and ridiculous of all is that the machines don't give you any sort of paper receipt after you vote. The implications of that are obvious, and there is simply no sensible reason for it. It's certainly not a tech problem -- the voting data program is basically a mishmash of MS Excel and Access, and we all get automatic paper receipts at the freakin' gas pump. It's not that complicated. So what's the deal? As usual, none of these companies, of which Diebold is the largest, has felt any need to explain themselves, or rectify the situation. And it's not like too many citizens are even curious about it; voting fraud is so 2004, y'know. That whole deal was, like, eight or nine weeks ago. Quit livin' in the past, Gramps!

Funny how every one of the stories of machines "malfunctioning" only seemed to happen to Democratic voters, frequently in urban (largely black and Democratic) precincts. I don't recall a single instance reported of someone voting Bush, and watching the machine register Kerry, or a precinct "accidentally" awarding several thousand more votes to Kerry than even existed in the precinct (as happened in Ohio's Gahanna precinct).

Several recent elections across the country have already been overturned or reversed, due to "technical errors". Fortunately, no terribly large offices at stake, thus far, that we're being notified of. Then again, we the people are on a need-to-know basis.