Diebold to Settle with California

Found on Internet News on Friday, 17 December 2004
Browse Politics

A California court has approved a $2.6 million settlement between Diebold and the State of California and Alameda County. The state and county had sued Diebold for fraudulent claims about the security of its electronic voting machines.

The settlement is the fruit of a suit filed in September by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who argued that Diebold was not truthful about the security and reliability of its electronic voting machines.

Lockyer, who earlier dropped a criminal probe into Diebold, claimed that Diebold provided Alameda County with software that was not certified by the government. Researchers earlier determined the machines contained dangerous flaws.

Researchers said the voting system could easily allow someone to cast multiple votes in the same election. Last April, California set stringent standards for electronic voting by ordering new security measures for e-voting machines.

Now isn't it a bit late for that? Those problems were well-known before the election; Diebold machines shouldn't have been allowed in first place. It's also disturbing to hear that the boss of Diebold is a strong supporter of Dubya. However, it's too late now. Let's just hope in 4 years things will get better.