Diebold Going After Whistle Blower Who Revealed Their Use Of Uncertified Voting
from the that-doesn't-make-you-look-good dept
As you may be aware, the company Diebold doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to the trustworthiness and reliability of their e-voting machines. What's odd, is that rather than making efforts to improve the machines or be more open about what's in them, the company continues to attack its critics. One of the big stories concerning Diebold that broke in early 2004 was that the company knowingly used uncertified machines in certain elections. Of course, rather than apologizing and admitting they screwed up and putting in place a lot of procedures and public oversight to make sure this never happened again... the company sued the person who blew the whistle on them. Slashdot points out that the individual has now been arraigned on felony charges, to which he pleaded not guilty. What's interesting here, from a legal standpoint, is that he's not really protected by whistle-blowing laws, since the guy worked for a law firm working with Diebold and not for Diebold itself -- so Diebold certainly has some right to be upset that someone at its law firm leaked the info. However, from a PR standpoint, it looks really bad, as it (once again) makes Diebold look like covering up what they did wrong is a lot more important than fixing the many problems they have.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
That's the lamest excuse possible in this case. It might make sense in business law, but when it comes to a manufacturer of VOTING MACHINES the rules ought to change a little, don't you think?
"The Rights of the Accused ave Always Outweighed the Public Interest?"
Now that's just Bull, sraight on the rocks, no chaser.
--Prof. HighBrow
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
Is it only obvious to non Americans that your voting system has been corrupted?
Why has no one insisted that Diebold remove (or at least change) the default crypto key hard coded into all the voting machines in the US? The key has been available on google for over two years now.
The kicker for me was multiple results (in Colarado) all having the margin of 818181 (hahaha in leet)...
I suppose the US has the best government money can buy....
Look at blackboxvoting.org
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
wuss
[ link to this | view in chronology ]