|
Sequoia comments on diebold Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1060507915313300.xmlhttp://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1060507915313300.xml
To win contract, Diebold offers the state a carrot
08/10/03
Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus - In the cutthroat battle over Ohio's election-machine upgrade, Ohio-based Diebold Inc. upped the ante on its competitors last week by playing the hometown card.
Diebold - under fire nationally for purported security flaws in its touch-screen voting system - offered to consider building all its voting machines for Ohio in-state if it wins a statewide contract, a company spokesman confirmed.
The offer came during a round of negotiations in which two of five finalist firms apparently were eliminated, leaving just three: Diebold, Election Systems & Software and Hart Intercivic. The final three are scheduled to meet with state negotiators one last time tomorrow, in preparation for the ultimate vendor list being released to counties Friday.
Diebold's proposal was significant because none of its rivals in the war over rights to sell voting machines in Ohio can match such an offer. Not one has a production facility, as Diebold does, in Ohio.
It is also intriguing because Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who will make the final selection, has said he doesn't intend to award statewide rights to any one vendor. When Georgia did that, the firm it selected was Diebold - a fact not lost on competitors in the Ohio deal.
But Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said Diebold's willingness to boost its Ohio operations will have no bearing in negotiations and will not prevent state negotiators from asking tough questions about system security.
"This is not an economic-development project," LoParo said. "This is a process that will provide the voters of Ohio with the best election systems available, at the best value for the taxpayers.
We would expect Diebold to build every machine they sell throughout the country in Ohio - we're centrally located."
Ohio expects to spend as much as $161 million on its conversion to new electronic-voting machines, a move prompted here and in other states by errors in vote tabulation during the 2000 presidential race.
Competitors theorized that Diebold made the attractive offer to Blackwell's negotiating team because the company is nervous over bad publicity it has received nationally.
A study by a Johns Hopkins University researcher released late last month found that Diebold's system was so flawed that a computer-savvy high-school student could hack into it.
"I would not be surprised if the report played a role," said Kathryn Ferguson, a spokeswoman for Sequoia Voting Systems, a Diebold rival.
"I think the heightened interest in security of voting has kind of changed things."
Diebold has strenuously contested the study's findings, saying the software that was attacked was not current. But the momentum created by the report has continued to dog the North Canton-based manufacturer.
Just last week, Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. ordered a review of Diebold's touch-screen voting system, putting a just-reached $55.6 million contract with 19 Maryland counties in limbo.
In Ohio, state Sen. Jeff Jacobson, a suburban Dayton Republican, reacted to the report by calling upon Blackwell to remove Diebold from the running here.
Political insiders say it would be virtually impossible - given the firm's political connections - for Blackwell, a Republican, to not have Diebold on his final list.
Diebold chief executive Walden O'Dell is a generous contributor to Republican campaigns and fund-raisers, from the Republican National Committee and White House on down.
He and his wife donated a combined $8,500 to Gov. Bob Taft between June 2001 and October 2002, state records show, and Taft subsequently appointed O'Dell to the board of trustees at Ohio State University.
W.R. "Tim" Timken, one of Ohio's most influential Republicans, is on Diebold's board. Members of the Timken family contributed almost $66,000 to Republican campaigns in Ohio from 2000 to 2002.
Also, former White House chief of staff John Sununu, a longtime political supporter of Blackwell's, visited Ohio at one point to discuss forming a joint venture to help promote Diebold in its former incarnation as Global Election Systems.
Diebold spokesman Mike Jacobsen initially denied that the offer regarding in-state manufacturing was ever made. But he later corrected himself.
"We can say that during the negotiation process with state officials, we discussed various possibilities and, if Ohio did indeed decide to go statewide with Diebold as a single vendor, that manufacturing the voting terminals in the state would be something that we would consider," Jacobsen said.
He said the manufacturing could be done in Newark, where Diebold operates a plant that makes automated teller machines. Diebold makes its voting machines in North Carolina.
Jacobsen said the company stands behind the security and reliability of its systems, which are already in testing stages in Lucas County, and supports awarding statewide voting-machine rights to one firm.
LoParo said, "Our process is not structured to result in a sole-source provider."
He acknowledged that the bid documents asked firms to put up enough bonding and produce the number of machines needed to cover the entire state - but said that was for legal reasons.
"If a qualified vendor can convince all the county boards of elections that they are the best choice, they can do so," he said. "But we believe it is unlikely that will happen."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jsmyth@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272
© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
|
|
