# Should Diebold be excluded from voting machine bid?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-diebold-be-excluded-from-voting-machine-bid/199168>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 2, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-diebold-be-excluded-from-voting-machine-bid/199168 "2003-09-02T16:53:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Roger\_Mexico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@Roger\_Mexico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_Mexico)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-diebold-be-excluded-from-voting-machine-bid/199168/41 "2003-09-07T18:20:52Z")

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That is a long-winded way of acknowledging that you lost the argument.

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**Author:** ![Roger\_Mexico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@Roger\_Mexico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_Mexico)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-diebold-be-excluded-from-voting-machine-bid/199168/42 "2003-09-10T05:38:55Z")

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Here is a long detailed analysis of the Diebold voting machines, by Douglas Jones, Prof of Comp Sci at U of Iowa. Disclaimer: I am not aware of any conflicts of interest he may have with other voting machine companies, so beware…

[http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/dieboldftp.html](http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/dieboldftp.html)

History of voting irregularities:

[http://workersrighttovote.org/more.htm](http://workersrighttovote.org/more.htm)

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**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-diebold-be-excluded-from-voting-machine-bid/199168/43 "2003-09-23T22:43:42Z")

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Update bump: [a Slashdot link to a Salon story](http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/09/23/1235245.shtml?tid=103&tid=99) (with other stories linked to in the mod level 4 and 5 posts in the comments section) about just how incredibly easy it would be to tamper with election results the way the machines are set up now.

I guess in this case, the question becomes, if there were a way to mess with vote tallies with little fear of detection (which these machines seem to give), who exactly would take advantage of such a thing, and how? Would we ever know?

(Such issues also covered in threads like [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=143151) and [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=201743).)

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**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-diebold-be-excluded-from-voting-machine-bid/199168/44 "2003-09-24T22:39:29Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> DIEBOLD ELECTION SYSTEMS has brandished lawyers’ threats to take down that pesky citizens activist website [blackboxvoting.org](http://blackboxvoting.org). It seems they charged copyright infringement regarding materials on other websites that [blackboxvoting.org](http://blackboxvoting.org) merely linked to, despite such links having been ruled legal by appellate courts in other instances.

[http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11743](http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11743)

It gives one pause doesn’t it?

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