Dear Orly,

Recently, I glanced at the name on the keys to my bank safe deposit box and saw the name “Diebold, Inc, Canton, Ohio”. From their Vault & Safe Solutions website:

diebold.com/dnpssec/financial/solutions/vaults_safes/sd_boxes_lockers.htm

I found some history about Diebold’s other business: electronic voting machines:

Diebold entered the U.S. election systems business after purchasing Global Election Systems, Inc., in January 2002.

Since early 2006, Diebold has identified its U.S. elections systems business as non-core to its operations and has been pursuing strategic alternatives to ownership, including divestiture.

In August 2007, Diebold announced it had realigned its U.S. elections systems subsidiary to operate as an independent entity and renamed the company, Premier Election Solutions. Since that time, Diebold has maintained only a financial interest in Premier with no direct operational involvement.

In 2008, Premier generated $88.2 million in revenue, or 2.8 percent of Diebold’s total reported revenue for the year.

Diebold has agreed to sell its elections systems business for $5 million in cash plus future cash payments representing 70% of any cash collected on the outstanding U.S. election systems business accounts receivable as of August 31, 2009.

03 September 2009 – Diebold Sells U.S. Elections Systems Business to ES&S.
NORTH CANTON, Ohio, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) announced today that it has sold its U.S. election systems business, primarily consisting of its Allen, Texas-based subsidiary, Premier Election Solutions, Inc., to Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), a leading company in the election systems industry. The sale was consummated on September 2.

From the following website there is an extensive write up about Canadian-based Dominion Voting Systems, ES&S, Diebold/Premier, Sequoia, Smartmatic and Hugo Chavez, as reported by: Brad Friedman | Bradblog (copy and paste in browser):

truth-out.org/canadian-firm-buys-dieboldpremier-and-sequoia-voting-machine-companies60645

Excerpts:

“Following Dominion’s May (2010) acquisition of Diebold/Premier’s assets from ES&S and their subsequent purchase of the entirety of Sequoia Voting Systems announced June 4th, the very rough private ownership of public elections in the U.S. may now stack up as follows:

50% Dominion (Diebold/Premier, Sequoia)
40% ES&S
10% Hart Intercivic”

and,

“But no matter how the numbers eventually shake out, Dominion is now a serious power-playing Goliath in the U.S. e-voting industry, and potentially even the biggest kid on the block — all in a matter of weeks, with virtually nobody in the public or media paying attention, and even fewer seeming to give a damn about what it all means, and what it all actually amounts to.”

and,

“Just another day in our bought and paid-for, fully privatized system of “public” elections in the world’s once-greatest democracy.”

and,

“The continuing control of the IP (Intellectual Property) was discovered by The BRAD BLOG long after the (largely) Rightwing outrage which had forced a federal investigation into Smartmatic’s control over American elections had died down.

The initial concern had coming following revelations that Smartmatic seemed to be directly tied to the Venezuelan President Chavez. Angry sentiment led by CNN’s Lou Dobbs and some members of Congress (including NY’s Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney) led to an investigation by the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), subsequently forcing Smartmatic to divest of Sequoia. Sequoia was then supposedly purchased away from Smartmatic by a team of its U.S. executives, in order to make it fully independent from the Chavez-tied parent company. But that divestiture was a lie.”

and,

“Nonetheless, the answer is clear: Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is still tied to a huge percentage of U.S. Elections, as now overseen by a Canadian firm.”

“Unfortunately, federal CFIUS investigations are held entirely in secret, so we are unable to find out from them whether the federal body was informed of Smartmatic’s continuing ownership of the Intellectual Property, and all the legal rights and privileges that go with it, as employed to conduct some 20% of U.S. elections.

Were the DoJ or any of those “nine state attorneys general” made aware of Smartmatic’s continuing ownership of the IP? Do any of the “26 million U. S. voters, including the City of Chicago and Cook County, Illinois, the State of Louisiana, the State of Nevada and the majority of counties in California,” who use Sequoia’s systems, according to the Dominion announcement, know about it? Do they even care? How about the folks on the Right who were so outraged before?

Deafening silence continues on all fronts.”

and,

“However, as mentioned, Riggall (Dominion’s spokesperson-the unfortunately named at least for a voting-machine company spokesman Chris Riggall) had formerly served as press rep for Diebold and, prior to that, as the Press Secretary to GA’s Democratic Sec. of State Cathy Cox until she left the post. In 2002, long before she left office following an unsuccessful primary bid for her party’s Gubernatorial nomination in 2006, Cox infamously brought Diebold’s horrendous touch-screen voting system to the entire state of Georgia.

The Peach State, along with Maryland, was the first to adopt state-wide use of Diebold’s infamous, oft-failed, easily-manipulated, 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting systems. Chicanery with the systems has been the subject of much controversy — fueled in part by a company whistleblower, as detailed by Bobby Kennedy Jr. at Rolling Stone in 2006 — in regard to the declared upset victory of Republican Saxby Chambliss over then incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland.

Cox also took the opportunity, along with her state’s acquisition of Diebold systems, to grace the cover of Diebold’s sales brochure, as seen below, to help the company sell more easily-hacked, often-failed, always-unverifiable e-voting systems to an unsuspecting, uninformed nation…”

and,

“What could possibly go wrong?

As we explained: “So (Edwin) Smith went from voting machine company Hart Intercivic to voting machine company Sequoia Voting Systems and is now at voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems, where he is a VP, selling e-voting systems to jurisdictions around the country that receive federal money doled out by the EAC.

And now he’ll also sit on an advisory board at the EAC helping to advise which one of those companies sees their systems certified for use in U.S. elections by the EAC. Just amazing.”

Now, of course, Smith’s power is even more concentrated as his new firm Dominion has acquired his old firm, Sequoia.
Around and around they all go. Where it stops, the voters never need know…”

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Copy and paste in browser to read the full very interesting article:

truth-out.org/canadian-firm-buys-dieboldpremier-and-sequoia-voting-machine-companies60645

Paula Hoehn

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