The Business of Voting

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Tue, 20 Dec 2005 09:31:05 -0600

The Business of Voting

 

 

 

 

The Business of Voting

The New York Times | Editorial

 

Sunday 18 December 2005

 

Diebold, the controversial electronic voting machine manufacturer,

is coming off a tumultuous week. Its chief executive, Walden O'Dell,

resigned. It was hit with a pair of class-action lawsuits charging

insider trading and misrepresentation, and a county in Florida

concluded that Diebold's voting machines could be hacked. The company

should use Mr. O'Dell's departure to reassess its flawed approach to

its business. The counting of votes is a public trust. Diebold, whose

machines count many votes, has never acted as if it understood this.

 

Mr. O'Dell made national headlines when he wrote a fund-raising

letter before the 2004 election expressing his commitment to help

deliver the electoral votes of Ohio - where Diebold is based, and

where its machines are used - to President Bush. Under pressure,

Diebold barred its top officials from contributing to campaigns. But

this month, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reported that three

executives not covered by the ban continued to make contributions to

Republican candidates.

 

Diebold's voting machines have a troubled history. The company was

accused of installing improperly certified software, which is illegal,

in a 2002 governor's race in Georgia. Across the country, it reached a

multimillion-dollar settlement with the California attorney general

last year of a lawsuit alleging that it made false claims about the

security of its machines. Last week, the top elections officer in Leon

County, Fla., which includes Tallahassee, concluded after a test that

Diebold machines can be hacked to change vote totals.

 

Diebold has always insisted that its electronic voting machines

are so reliable that there is no need for paper records of votes that

can be independently verified. Fortunately, the American people feel

otherwise. Nearly half the states - including large ones like

California, New York, Illinois and Ohio - now require so-called paper

trails.

 

Paper trails are important, but they are no substitute for voting

machine manufacturers of unquestioned integrity. As Diebold enters the

post-O'Dell era, it should work to make itself worthy of the important

role it now plays in American democracy.

 

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