Diebold blamed for election delays (Scioto County, Ohio)

From the Portsmouth, Ohio (Scioto County) Daily Times:

‘Election chaos'
Diebold blamed for election delays

By Mark Shaffer
PDT News Editor
Wednesday, November 9, 2005 2:44 AM EST

Scioto County Board of Elections Chairman Steve Mowery had a very clear message when summing up Tuesday night's first fully computerized election run by Diebold.

“They failed miserably,” he said of the company hired by the state to replace all the punch card systems in Ohio with optical scanning equipment. “I don't want to sound like we are casting blame, but I don't know how else to answer these questions.”

As of 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, there were no unofficial election results and the best estimate was that some results would not be known until Wednesday's early-morning hours. Most people who gathered at the Scioto County Courthouse were expecting results by 10 a.m.

http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/articles/2005/11/09/news/local_news/1news_chaos.txt

Note: Scioto County went for Hackett by a large margin; right after that, the county's punchcard voting machines were replaced by Diebold. Coincidence?

I hope the MSM picks up on this story.

But the MSM has no real interest in giving air time to the voices of small-town, mostly poor folks who live in Appalachian Ohio. Even those folks can smell a skunk (Diebold) but most of the MSM have their noses so far up BushCo's ass they've inured themselves to the smell of shit. Yes, why let "unglamorous" folks like these clutter the airwaves about the obvious corruption of our very democracy when there's always Aruba to blab on about?

Hmmm... now there's a thought! :thumbsup:

and attaching them to office trash cans, paper shredders, toilet seats, etc.

:evilgrin:

I'd love to start sticking them around DC.

on Trademark grounds. The "Terms of Service" disallows use of images containing trademarks.

The PDT is a small town paper but they have really been trying to present some honest journalism on hot button political issues. Some LTTEs thanking them for coverage and some encouragement to keep sniffing those trails might produce a bigger story than you think. Too many of the big-name, big-profit media venues are already compromised. It may just be via investigations from smaller newspapers such as the Portsmouth (Ohio) Daily Times where that elusive bit of hard evidence could be uncovered and finally sink Blackwell's cruise on the S.S. Diebold!

Provided they don't send the ballots to a central processing station in the county

Counting the ballots at the precinct level would take less time then counting at the county level. County level should only be used for recounts.

In presidential elections during the 1800's they didn't have results overnight or the next morning. In fact, elections weren't held on the same day in each state.

(Please note that the online articles are abridged from the printed version of the paper.)

http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/articles/2005/11/10/news/local_news/1news_board.txt

Board seeks answers

By Rick Greene
PDT Managing Editor
Wednesday, November 9, 2005 11:18 PM EST

Calling Tuesday's night's election an “embarrassment” to the board of elections and the county, Chairman Steve Mowery and board representatives were looking for answers at a meeting Wednesday evening in the courthouse.

Bob Urosevich, Director of Strategic Planning for Diebold, and David Keeler, president of Dayton Legal Blank, Inc., fielded questions from the board, apologized and promised prompt resolutions and future improvement....

*******
Folks, we need to encourage the PDT to keep pushing the story of Diebold's fuckups in Scioto County! This may be the smoking gun we've been waiting for!

You can practically hear the sarcasm dripping from the headline of this one!

http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/articles/2005/11/10/news/local_news/2news_scioto.txt

Scioto unique in election problems

by Mark Shaffer PDT News Editor
Wednesday, November 9, 2005 11:18 PM EST

Scioto County was apparently unique in the amount of troubles it had with its new computerized voting system.

The results for Tuesday's election came in late, around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, and the Scioto County Board of Elections put the blame squarely on Diebold, the company hired to computerize the county's voting system, and Dayton Legal Blank, Inc., the company that supplied the ballots.

According to the Ohio Secretary of State's office, of the 44 counties that switched to computerized voting systems for Tuesday's election, most counties went with a touch screen system....

********

By the way, if there are any DUers here with access to the printed versions of The Portsmouth Daily Times, could you fill in some of the missing text of these articles? The online versions are abridged.