HA HA HA HA ha ha ha ha....
Give me a break... all of the Diebold crap happened in AUGUST 2003..check the dates yourself. Did you hear me AUGUST 2003..and now people are questioning the diebold connection
give me a break. If the DNC was stupid enough NOT to investigate it in AUGUST 2003 when it hit the news..then shame on them.
Diebold even has the below ODell piece on their web site:
(from SEPTEMBER 2003)
Diebold Executive to Keep Lower Profile
From the Sept. 16, 2003, edition of The Plain Dealer
By Julie Carr Smyth, Plain Dealer Bureau
An Ohio voting-machine executive pummeled with national criticism for his close ties to the Bush re-election campaign said yesterday he wants to make amends.
Walden O'Dell, chief executive of North Canton-based Diebold Inc., confirmed in an interview with Plain Dealer editors that he has been a top fund-raiser for the Republican president, but said he intends to lower his political profile and "try to be more sensitive" in light of the national criticism he has faced.
"I'm not doing anything wrong or complicated, but it obviously did leave me open to the criticism I've received," he said.
"I've taken it personally; it's very painful, it may have injured our company, and I feel really badly about that."
In an invitation to a Republican fund-raiser at his suburban Columbus mansion, O'Dell said he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the president next year."
The letter closely followed a visit by O'Dell to a fund-raising powwow at Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch for six-figure fund-raisers known as "Pioneers and Rangers."
He said he regrets the wording in the letter.
"I'm a pretty experienced business leader, but a real novice on the political side of this. This blind-sided me," O'Dell said. "I don't have a political adviser or a screener or a letter reviewer or any of that stuff."
Because the fund-raising revelations fell closely on the heels of security questions raised about Diebold's machines in a later-questioned Johns Hopkins University study, O'Dell's critics began to suggest that Diebold should not be allowed to be involved in elections.
The company was at the time vying for a place on Ohio's favored-vendor list, which it has since won.
"I wouldn't have imagined it, but now that I'm painfully aware of this issue, I will obviously be much more politically sensitive, cautious and try to be more balanced," O'Dell said.
He called Diebold "a model of integrity and reporting and clarity and disclosure and consistency" and said he hopes his company - which employs 3,000 Ohioans - does not suffer because of his personal mistake.
"I can see it now, but I never imagined that people could say that just because you've got a political favorite that you might commit this treasonous felony atrocity to try to change the outcome of an election," he said. "I wouldn't and couldn't."
O'Dell was quick to point out that he has done nothing illegal. He also said he has no daily involvement with Diebold's election-systems division, which is based in Texas - and run by a registered Democrat.
He said the elections business is responsible for just $100 million of Diebold's $2.1 billion operation.
Despite his regrets, O'Dell said he will not stop supporting Bush's campaign. He said he went to Bush's fund-raising event at the invitation of the campaign.
"They had an event for Pioneers and Rangers, and I am one - and proud of it," O'Dell said. " . . . [But] if I have kind of overmixed that with my corporate entity, I feel badly about that."
Diebold O'Dell piece from their website newsroom
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