California just cleared Diebold Election Systems to sell their buggy, hackable voting machines to county registrars - just in time for the 2006 Congressional elections.
Oh, but Diebold promises the machines will work accurately and safely...
After almost three years, Diebold Election Systems won approval Friday to sell its latest voting machines in California, despite findings by computer scientists that the software inside is probably illegal and has security holes found in earlier Diebold products.
The scientists advised Secretary of State Bruce McPherson this week that those risks were "manageable" and could be "mitigated" by tightening security around Diebold's voting machines.
McPherson gave conditional approval to Diebold's latest touch-screen voting machines and optical scanners Friday, while his staff ordered the McKinney, Texas-based company to get rid of the security holes as quickly as possible.
"After rigorous scrutiny, I have determined that these Diebold systems can be used for the 2006 elections," McPherson said in a statement.
Sorry, let me get this straight - you decided the Diebold machines are okay after ordering them to be fixed?
L.A. County is not mentioned on the list of 21 counties that might buy into this mess, but we should categorically reject any system whose CEO once promised to deliver the election for a major candidate.
UPDATE: A whistle-blower who tried to expose Diebold's flaws and misdeeds just got arraigned on felony charges. Tell me there's not something sinister at work with this company.
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - 10:28 AM
