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The BRAD BLOG can now report that a Securities Fraud Class Action suit has been filed against Diebold, Inc. (stock symbol: DBD) naming eight top executive officers in the company as co-defendants. The suit has been filed by plaintiff Janice Konkol, alleging securities fraud against the North Canton, Ohio-based manufacturer of Voting Systems and ATM machines on behalf of investors who owned shares of Diebold stock and lost money due to an alleged fraudulent scheme by the company and its executives to deceive shareholders during the "class period" of October 22, 2003 through September 21, 2005.

The suit was filed today in U.S. Federal District Court in Ohio and alleges the company "artificially inflated" stock prices through misleading public information designed to conceal the true nature of Diebold's financial and legal situation. The defendants are also alleged to have attempted to disguise well-known and ongoing problems with Diebold's Voting Machine equipment and software. Additionally, the suit alleges insider trading by defendants resulting in proceeds of $2.7 million. Remedies are sought under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.</blockquote>

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Due to security design issues and contractual non-performance, Leon County (Florida) supervisor of elections Ion Sancho told Black Box Voting that he will never use Diebold in an election again. He has requested funds to replace the Diebold system from the county. He will issue a formal announcement to this effect shortly.

Finnish security expert Harri Hursti proved that Diebold lied to Secretaries of State across the nation when Diebold claimed votes could not be changed on the memory card.

A test election was run in Leon County today with a total of eight ballots - six ballots voted "no" on a ballot question as to whether Diebold voting machines can be hacked or not. Two ballots, cast by Dr. Herbert Thomson and by Harri Hursti voted "yes" indicating a belief that the Diebold machines could be hacked.

At the beginning of the test election the memory card programmed by Harri Hursti was inserted into an Optical Scan Diebold voting machine. A "zero report" was run indicating zero votes on the memory card. In fact, however, Hursti had pre-loaded the memory card with plus and minus votes.

The eight ballots were run through the optical scan machine. The standard Diebold-supplied "ender card" was run through as is normal procedure ending the election. A results tape was run from the voting machine.

Correct results should have been:

Yes:2 No:6

However the results tape read:

Yes:7 No:1

The results were then uploaded from the optical scan voting machine into the GEMS central tabulator. The central tabulator is the "mothership" that pulls in all votes from voting machines. The results in the central tabulator read:

Yes:7 No:1

This proves that the votes themselves were changed in a one-step process that would not be detected in any normal canvassing procedure - using only a credit-card sized memory card.

Diebold Elections Systems head of research and development Pat Green specifically told the Cuyahoga County board of elections that votes could not be changed on the memory card.

According to Public Records responses obtained by Black Box Voting in response to our requests shows that Diebold promulgated this misrepresentation to as many as 800 state and local elections officials.

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Yesterday, in a surprise announcement, O'Dell unexpectedly resigned from the company. A Diebold press release described O'Dell as leaving the company for "personal reasons". He was immediately replaced by the company's president and chief operating officer, Thomas W. Swidarski, who had directly overseen Diebold's Election Systems subsidiary division for some time. Swidarski is also named as a co-defendant in today's class action suit.

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Even if Diebold is pushed out of the voting scene, we still need to take a much closer look at ES&S. If the Deibold machines can be hacked so easily I am sure they are not the only ones.

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Dec 13 (Reuters) - A law firm said it filed suit on Tuesday against Diebold Inc. (DBD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) alleging the voting-machine maker lacked sufficient internal controls, was unable to be confident in the quality of its voting machines and made misleading statements about its condition.

The lawsuit was filed by Scott + Scott LLC in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and seeks class-action status.

On Monday, the company, which also makes automatic-teller machines, said chief executive Walden O'Dell is resigning for personal reasons and named Thomas Swidarski, president and chief operating officer, to replace him.

Diebold late on Monday also confirmed its previous fourth-quarter earnings forecast of 50 to 60 cents per share, including restructuring charges of 13 cents a share.

The company's shares rose 5.3 percent on Tuesday.

A spokesman for Diebold was not immediately available for comment regarding the lawsuit.

O'Dell's resignation was the latest in a series of management changes at the company in recent months.

In September, Diebold cut its earnings forecast, blaming a list of factors including Hurricane Katrina, and said its chief operating officer was leaving the company. Its shares fell as much as 16 percent.

On Tuesday, the company's shares rose $2.01 to close at $39.74 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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COLCHESTER, Conn., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott+Scott, LLC (http://www.scott-scott.com), at the direction of clients, has filed a securities fraud class action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against Diebold Inc. ("Diebold" or the "Company") (NYSE: DBD - News) and individual defendants. Presently, the class is defined in the complaint drafted by Scott+Scott as those who purchased Diebold securities between October 22, 2003, and September 21, 2005, inclusive (the "Class Period"). However, any purchaser of Diebold securities can contact the firm as the Class Period may change as information is revealed. Diebold engages in the development, manufacture, sale, and service of systems, software, and various products used to equip bank facilities such as automatic teller machines.

ADVERTISEMENT
If you purchased Diebold securities during the Class Period and wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in the action, you must move the court no later than 60 days from today. Any member of the purported class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. If you wish to discuss this action or have questions concerning this notice or your rights, please contact Scott+Scott for more information. Scott+Scott will provide class members with case materials, answer all questions regarding participation and rights and assist with other services the firm provides. There is no cost or fee to you. Contact Scott+Scott partner Neil Rothstein (nrothstein@scott-scott.com, 800/332-2259, ext. 22 or cell 619/251-0887). Diebold investors may also contact the firm at DieboldSecuritiesLitigation@scott-scott.com.

The complaint alleges that defendants violated provisions of the United States securities laws causing artificial inflation of the Company's stock price. According to the complaint, during the Class Period, the Company lacked a credible state of internal controls and corporate compliance and remained unable to assure the quality and working order of its voting machine products. It is further alleged that the Company's false and misleading statements served to conceal the dimensions and scope of internal problems at the Company, impacting product quality, strategic planning, forecasting and guidance and culminating in false representations of astonishingly low and incredibly inaccurate restructuring charges for the 2005 fiscal year, which grossly understated the true costs and problems defendants faced to restructure the Company. The complaint also alleges over $2.7 million of insider trading proceeds obtained by individual defendants during the Class Period.

Finally, investors learned the truth about the adverse impact of the Company's alleged defective and deficient inventory-related controls and systems on Diebold's financial performance. As a result of defendants' shocking news and disclosures of September 21, 2005, the price of Diebold shares plunged 15.5% on unusually high volume, falling from $44.37 per share on September 20, 2005, to $37.47 per share on September 21, 2005, for a one- day drop of $6.90 per share on volume of 6.1 million shares -- nearly eight times the average daily trading volume.

The plaintiff is represented by Scott+Scott, LLC, which has significant experience in prosecuting investor class actions. The firm dedicates itself to client communication and satisfaction and currently is litigating major securities, antitrust and employee retirement plan actions throughout the United States. The firm represents pension funds, charities, foundations, individuals and other entities worldwide. Cases currently being litigated and/or investigated by Scott+Scott, LLC include: Refco, Inc.; Guidant Corp.; Abbott Laboratories; Halliburton; TRM Corp.; and Faro Tech., among others. Its success has brought shareholders hundreds of millions of dollars in cases against Mattel, Royal Dutch/Shell, Sprint, ImClone and others.

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ALLAHASSEE - A political operative with hacking skills could alter the results of any election on Diebold-made voting machines -- and possibly other new voting systems in Florida -- according to the state capital's election supervisor, who said Diebold software has failed repeated tests.

Ion Sancho, Leon County's election chief, said tests by two computer experts, completed this week, showed that an insider could surreptitiously change vote results and the number of ballots cast on Diebold's optical-scan machines.

After receiving county commission approval Tuesday, Sancho scrapped Diebold's system for one made by Elections Systems and Software, the same provider used by Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The difference between the systems: Sancho's machines use a fill-in-the-blank paper ballot that allows for after-the-fact manual recounts, while Broward and Miami-Dade use ATM-like touchscreens that leave no paper trail.

''That's kind of scary. If there's no paper trail, you have to rely solely on electronic results. And now we know that they can be manipulated under the right conditions, without a person even leaving a fingerprint,'' said Sancho, who once headed the state's elections supervisors association.

The Leon County test results are likely to further fuel suspicions that the new electronic voting systems in Florida, in place since the 2002 elections, are susceptible to manipulation.

When the debate hit fever pitch before last year's presidential election, many conservatives said questions about the machinery were a liberal ploy to undermine confidence in the voting system.

...

Thompson told The Herald he was ‘’shocked'’ at how easy it was to get in, make the loser the winner and leave without a trace. The machine asked for a user name and password, but didn’t require it, he said. That meant it had not just a ‘’front door, but a back door as big as a garage,'’ Thompson said.

From there, Thompson said, he typed five lines of computer code — and switched 5,000 votes from one candidate to another.

‘’I am positive an eighth grader could do this,'’ Thompson said.

...

Over the past few months, computer expert Harri Hursti tried to manipulate election results with the memory card inserted into each Diebold voting machine. The card records votes during an election, then at the end of the day is taken to a central location where results are totaled.

Hursti figured out how to hack into the memory card by using an agricultural scanning device easily available on the Internet, said BlackBox founder Bev Harris. He learned how to hide votes, make losers out of winners and leave no trace, she said.

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There likely will not be a high-tech voting machine in your future this year. After announcing late last year that Connecticut's 3,300 mechanical, lever-style voting machines could no longer be used, the secretary of the state reversed herself. It's all about a big foul-up by companies bidding for Connecticut's business.
...
"I am stopping the purchasing process for electronic voting equipment in Connecticut," Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz. "The state will use lever voting machines in the 2006 election."

After a much publicized, public testing of modern electronic voting technology late last year, it was determined that none of the high-tech devices met all of the requirements of new state and federal rules. In addition to being user friendly for those with disabilities, voters must be able to see the entire ballot all at once and there must be a voter verifiable paper record of their vote. Not even one of the machines tested qualified.

So the secretary of the state announced the process must start all over again.

At our invitation, two professors of computer science from a group called True Vote Connecticut watched. They had tried to raise the red flag on the electronic machines. Their complaints were dismissed last month by Secretary Bysiewicz, but today they learned that their observations were right on the money.

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And, in a message that we hope other states and counties will also hear loud and clear now that the 1/1/06 deadline for "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA) money has now passed, the article adds:

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So we can now add Connecticut to the growing list of American states and counties, including:

- Leon County, FL
- Volusia County, FL
- St. Louis County, MO
- The State of California
- The State of N. Carolina

...amongst those who seem, at least partially, to be coming to their senses of late vis a vis the absurd proposition of instituting unsecured, uncertified, un-transparent, hackable, secret software to count votes in our once-great American democracy!

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Fake voting rights activists and groups linked to White House

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Originally posted by KNOW-THIS
http://www.bradblog.com/

So we can now add Connecticut to the growing list of American states and counties, including:

- Leon County, FL
- Volusia County, FL
- St. Louis County, MO
- The State of California
- The State of N. Carolina

...amongst those who seem, at least partially, to be coming to their senses of late vis a vis the absurd proposition of instituting unsecured, uncertified, un-transparent, hackable, secret software to count votes in our once-great American democracy!

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Below is info re an Ohio House Bill to be voted on most probably this week . . .it's unbelievable.

The more publicized parts of Ohio HB3 will henceforth require voter ID and we all know what that means. But what has not received publicity - and for this I fault the Ohio state reps - is HUGE:

1. The cost of ordering a recount will quintuple - going from $10 to $50 PER PRECINCT - making it virtually unaffordable

2. Electronic machines will be exempted from recounts by random sampling, even in close, disputed elections. In the 2005 election, 41 additional Ohio counties (of 8 were switched to Diebold touchscreen machine

3. HB3 will make it virtually impossible for any challenge to be mounted involving any votes cast or counted on electronic machines or tabulators -- meaning virtually every vote cast in Ohio.

Marji Mendelsohn and Janice Weiss, co-founders, WeUnite.org

From the Daily Digest of Democracy for Cincinnati:
It is highly likely the so-called "election reform" bill, HB 3, will be addressed by a state House and Senate conference this week AND voted in both
houses. There may not be any opportunity for public testimony. It would be a good week to contact you state legislators. Congressweb appears to be an
easy way to do that. http://congressweb.com/

While Diebold is not explicitly addressed in the legislation, you might express your concern about electronic voting and your support to keep the
machine audit in the bill. The ID requirement is definitely something to oppose.
John Burik MEd, LPCC

Now, shocking legislation is poised to disenfranchise a vast number of Ohio voters. Our legislature recently finished work on a large piece of revised election law that we believe will disenfranchise as many as 100.000 voters.
Sub HB3 is so problematic that, even after the Senate corrected some of the worst parts of this legislation, Senator Grendell broke ranks with his Republican colleagues over the fairness of the bill. When it went back to the House, it was turned down 99 to 0 apparently because it imposed a limit on how much state bosses could collect from their employees. Sub HB3 as passed by the Senate was opposed at the hearings by:
CASE (Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections)
OLWV (Ohio Chapter of the League of Women Voters)
CC (Common Cause)
PFAW (People for the American Way)
OCA (Ohio Citizen Action)
GCVC (Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition)
OHE (Ohio Honest Elections)
Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless
NAACP

In testimony at the hearings, it was only supported by the secretary of state.

All the pieces of the election puzzle that we have seen in the past couple of years, when assembled today, show a picture where the foreground is focused mainly on incompetent and untrustworthy vendors supplying the voting machines. And in the background we see new election process rules that make voting significantly harder for isolated groups of people: the very young, the elderly, and the highly mobile. We can't blink our eyes and make this picture go away, we must create a better one.
From CASE (Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections) see http://caseohio.org

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
CALL Ohio Members of Congress & Press!

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

Contact Editor

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The Dots Connect Between Abramoff, Ohio 2004 Election Smokescreen and Ney's Former Staffer
Revealed to be on Diebold's Payroll While Working for White House Law Firm
All the While as HAVA -- America's 'Election Reform' Bill -- is Used for Political Payoff in the Bargain...

There's been a great deal of speculation over the last several days, particularly in the light of Jack Abramoff's
recent guilty pleas, concerning the connection of Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH) to Election Fraud in Ohio,
and indeed, vis a vis his stewardship and authoring of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) back in 2001 and 2002.
The heavy-handed tactics he has taken since then in order to keep the flawed act from being changed in any way
over the years, along with the great lengths he's gone to in order to keep the nation's eyes off of massive electile
dysfunction in Ohio and elsewhere since 2004 may finally soon get the attention it all properly deserves.

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Originally posted by KNOW-THIS

If people don't start finally waking up to this s!@# then I give up, f*** em! I just won't bother voting anymore because it has become pointless. Welcome to the new one-party system America. While everyone's playing right in to the scam by dismissing this as just "conspiracy theory", Republicans will continue to control through manipulation all branches of government for years to come. Take a look at how many scandals they're involved with now. Can anyone honestly tell me that they're above rigging an election?

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