Reply #24: Facts about DIEBOLD and others [View All]

The American vote count is controlled by three major corporate players, Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia, and a fourth, SAIC, Science Applications International. All four are hard-wired into the Bush power structure, the Bush crime family. They have been given millions of dollars by the Bush regime to complete a sweeping computerization of voting machines that were just used in the 2004 election. The technology involved had a trial run during the 2002 mid-term elections. Georgia had Diebold machines in every precinct. As a result, a popular Democratic governor and senator were both unseated in what the media called an "amazing" 16 percent swing.

Diebold's Walden O'Dell, a top Bush fundraiser, publicly committed himself to delivering his home state Ohio's votes to Bush. At Diebold, the election division is run by Bob Urosevich. Bob's brother, Todd, is a top executive at "rival" ES&S. The brothers were originally staked by Howard Ahmanson, a member of the Council For National Policy, a right-wing steering group stacked with Bush true believers. Ahmanson is also one of the bagmen behind the extremist Christian Reconstruction Movement, which advocates the theocratic takeover of American democracy.

The four companies are interconnected; they are not four "competitors." Ahmanson has large stakes in ES&S, whose former CEO was Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. When Hagel ran for office, his own company counted the votes, and his victory was considered "an amazing upset." Hagel still has a million dollar stake in ES&S.

Sequoia is the corporate parent of a private equity firm, Madison Dearborn, which is partner in the Carlyle Group.

Meanwhile, SAIC is referred to a "shadowy defense contractor." They have gotten into the vote count game both directly and through spinoffs by its top brass, including Admiral Bill Owens, former military aide to Dick Cheney, and Carlyle Group honcho Frank Carlucci and ex-CIA chief Robert Gates. SAIC's history of fraud charges and security "lapses" haven't prevented it from becoming one of the largest Pentagon and CIA contractors, and will doubtless encounter few obstacles in its entrance into the vote counting business.

The mad rush to install these unverifiable computers is driven by the Help America Vote Act, signed by Bush. The chief lobbying group pushing for the act was a consortium of arms dealers including Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin.

When you hear people saying, 'take a deep breath, we will pull through this,' 'we need to work harder,' 'we need to organize'-no. We will not. It's over. Unless electronic vote tabulation is history, and these companies are driven out of business, it's their country. Not ours.

Nobody knows, and no one will ever know, what the actual vote count was. There are no checks and balances left. The US Senate now has 55 of these Republicans. When they hit 60, which is what will happen in 2006 mid-term elections -- trust me -- that means that no matter what Bush and the crime family want to do, they can do it. The House is gone for the next two to five generations. It's gone.

The last thing rational people in this country need right now is this whistling-past-the-graveyard horse hockey. Nothing is going to happen; it's going to get worse. There will never again be a legitimate election in this county. Until we get rid of the machines.

(Quoted from Mike Malloy, Nov 3 2004)
just thought I would pass this along as many people are still unaware!