This is an excellent artical, do check it out.
<snip>
`Civil Rights'
Kerry likened Diebold's involvement in elections to discriminatory laws that disenfranchised minority voters before the advent of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
``Let me make it clear, we're the Democratic Party that stands up for civil rights,'' Kerry said. ``We didn't break the back of Jim Crow to have the Republicans give us JimCrow.com. In 2004, we will make sure that every vote is counted and we will win.'' <snip>
O'Dell declined to respond to Kerry's criticism, other than to say he would no longer raise money for Bush or contribute to the president's reelection campaign.
O'Dell sent a fundraising letter in August 2003 that said he was ``committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.'' With 20 electoral votes, Ohio is one of the most contested states in the race, political scientists say. Top
Diebold's Voting Machine Expansion Rattles Investors, States
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Diebold Inc. Chief Executive Officer Walden O'Dell says his company won't stop making voting machines, even though states challenge their reliability and investors say there's too little profit in the effort.
Under O'Dell, 58, Diebold has become the largest maker of touch-screen voting machines, a venture that has gained the 149- year-old company notoriety O'Dell says he would have preferred to avoid. O'Dell stopped raising money for George W. Bush's re- election campaign after Democratic candidate John Kerry complained in October that O'Dell was a Bush fund raiser.
In California, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley banned use of the newest Diebold voting machines in April. Machines in three counties didn't work properly, causing delays at polling places and wrong ballots to be used by some voters, Shelley said. More than 20 states say they might require voting machines like Diebold's to be redesigned to create a paper receipt.
``We walked into a minefield and maybe made some mistakes along the way,'' says O'Dell, who wears a tie dotted with American flags. ``Our heart and soul and energy are all in the right place here.''
Don Taylor, who manages $1.8 billion in the Franklin Rising Dividends Fund, says he wishes that North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold would stick to making automated teller machines and safes.
The voting-machine unit was the worst performing of any of Diebold's three divisions last year. Sales of voting machines fell 9.7 percent, the company reported in January. Profit from voting machines dropped 32 percent to $6.4 million. It was the only Diebold unit reporting declines. Diebold has had average annual revenue growth of 31 percent over the past five years.
`Sell the Business'
Much more:
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http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000176&sid=alE76fVHoxr8&refer=us_elec>
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