Freedom 
Keys
a collection of amusing, 
fascinating, insightful, or 
maybe even useful information

About those touch-screen 
voting machines in Ohio
during the 2004 election
.
Diebold and its Reputation
by John Dobbins

There is one fact that is being glossed over in favor of paranoid conspiracy theories.  Diebold's main business isn't those voting machines; that is just a sideline. They are one of the largest manufactors of Automated Teller Machines, and that is the Lion's Share of their Business. Do you realize how important trust is in the ATM business? The amount of trust you are placing in Diebold when you stick your bank card into one of their machines and enter your pin?

Diebold's main business is utterly dependent on the public placing trust in their product's security. If they wanted to engage in some underhanded dealings they could shave fractional cents off a small percentage of the ATM transactions they handle each day, and rake in more money than BOTH major parties could afford to pay them in bribes to rig an election.

Do you realize just how big a chance Diebold would be taking with the public trust needed for their core business to rig something in a sideline business? An election scandal would go far beyond just wrecking a sideline business; it would destroy the public trust that their main business of ATMs relies on.
Some of Diebold’s voting machines have been shown to be crackable by expert hackers, but the county-by-county voting history in Ohio indicates that their vulnerabilities were NOT exploited, probably because no one knew about them until the hackers found them long after the 2004 elections anyway.   This is only another indication why it's extremely unlikely they were designed-in on purpose, just like the myriad vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Windows programs despite the conspiracy theories.  Paper ballots and thorough poll-watchers will always be the best system anyway.
Kerry lost Ohio by about 120,000 votes. Wishful thinkers keep saying if "only" 60,000 Ohio voters had switched from Bush to Kerry he would have won.  But look at Wisconsin, which Kerry carried by about 11,300 votes.  "If only" 5700 Wisconsin voters had switched from Kerry to Bush, then Bush would have carried Wisconsin and Kerry STILL would have lost the election (even if he HAD carried Ohio).  You can bet if Kerry had started any long drawn-out lawsuits in Ohio the GOP would have done the same in Wisconsin, especially because of all the shenanigans that went on in Milwaukee.  But wishful thinking doesn't replace facts in the courtroom.  The most likely outcome of the two lawsuits would have been Bush winning even bigger -- nailing down BOTH Ohio's AND Wisconsin's electoral votes.
Are you aware there's a paper trail in 83 out of the 88 Ohio counties, and the recount counted them?

Are you aware that in the 5 counties with paperless touch screen machines, ONLY 2 USED DIEBOLD MACHINES?

Are you aware that JOHN KERRY GOT MORE VOTES THAN AL GORE DID IN EVERY ONE OF THOSE 5 COUNTIES, Diebold machines or otherwise?

Are you aware that, not only did he get more votes, HE GOT A HIGHER VOTE PERCENTAGE  THAN AL GORE DID IN 4 OF THOSE COUNTIES, AND ESSENTIALLY THE SAME VOTE PERCENTAGE IN THE 5th?

Are you aware that heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, which has LOST 9% in its population since 1990, had its HIGHEST "VOTER TURNOUT" EVER, and JOHN KERRY got the HIGHEST VOTE PERCENTAGE THERE of any Democrat in at least the last 20 years??

Are you aware that if you have been going around repeating alleged "facts" which you did NOT check out yourself, you've been an easily-fooled myrmidon, a sucker for your own personally-chosen versions of Baghdad Bob?

Did you know that most American bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling? 

Hmmmmm?

It's never too late to start. Go ahead and check out this chart (scroll down to post #26) of the vote totals and percentages of each Ohio County -- in 2004 and in previous elections.
 
 

ALSO: HERE'S A Democrat on a Democrats' website explaining "WHAT DIDN'T HAPPEN IN OHIO"

THIS study by the Election Science Institute says exit polls in Ohio put John Kerry ahead of George Bush because those who voted for the President were more reluctant to respond to the pollsters.  (Well, duh!  WHO in his right mind still expects Republican voters to trust ANYbody who might work for the MSM (mainstream media)?  Oh, I forgot -- the MSM!)

Find a few more links to sources of information and comments on Ohio's vote counting in 2004 here.