Diebold is in the news again and it does not look good. It will take more than spin to get out of this one.
Here is the SF Chronicle story:
Panel: Don't use Diebold touch-screen voting machines
California should prohibit at least four counties from using 15,000 touch-screen voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems, a key advisory panel recommended Thursday.
By an 8-0 vote, the state's Voting Systems and Procedures Panel recommended that Secretary of State Kevin Shelley ban the machines from the November elections.
Wired News writes:
California Moves to Boot Diebold
SACRAMENTO, California -- A California voting systems panel recommended Thursday that the secretary of state decertify an electronic voting machine made by Diebold Election Systems, making it likely that four counties that used the machines will have to find others for the November election.
The panel said the state should decertify the Diebold TSx. The TSx was used for the first time in California during the March primary in Kern, San Joaquin, Solano and San Diego counties. Kevin Shelley, California's secretary of state, has until April 30 to decide whether to act on the panel's recommendation. The state must give counties a six-month notice to take machines out of commission before an election.
The panel discovered last November that Diebold had installed uncertified software on the machines.
The San Jose Mercury News has:
Panel recommends ban on computer voting system in four counties
SACRAMENTO - An advisory panel unanimously recommended this morning that Secretary of State Kevin Shelley ban use of a computerized voting system in four California counties.
The panel also called on state Attorney General Bill Lockyer to open a criminal investigation into the conduct of Diebold Election Systems, the Ohio-based firm that manufactured the touch-screen system.
The advisory panel had convened a two-day hearing in Sacramento on Wednesday to review a report that Diebold had jeopardized the March primary by selling an untested and poorly functioning election system in California.
The recommendation to decertify Diebold's TSx balloting system, if adopted, would force officials in San Joaquin, Solano, San Diego and Kern counties to find alternative ways to count votes for the November presidential election.
This is big and will only get bigger.