Some excerpts from the Diebold memos

I believe that you should be able to read all of the Diebold memos for yourself. But if Diebold prevails in their take-down action, here are some excerpts for you to read. These excerpts are protected under the fair-use exemption to copyright, and should therefore be immune to any challenges.


RE: El Paso, Colorado (19 Mar 1999):

"for a demonstration I suggest you fake it"

Spyrus creating unauthorized Manager Cards (17 Jan 2002):

"Pressing the ENTER key creates a valid manager card. This happens in [...] Election mode."

RE: Memory card checksum errors (was: 2000 November Election) (18 Jan 2001)

"I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16022 when it was uploaded. [...] We had this happen in several precincts and one of these precincts managed to get her memory card out of election mode and then back in it, continued to read ballots, not realizing that the 300+ ballots she had read earlier were no longer stored in her memory card."

Re: Investigation of Volusia's Memory Cards. (26 Feb 2001):

"One vote center in Volusia quietly did clear the counters but failed to recount the previously processed ballots."

memory card corruption in Kansas (26 Feb 2001):

"More on the memory card corruption front ... this time Kansas ...

25 of 200 of Wyandotte County's memory cards have experinced corruption problems in the last three weeks."


RE: alteration of Audit Log in Access (18 Oct 2001):

"Right now you can open GEMS' .mdb file with MS-Access, and alter its contents. That includes the audit log. [...] [R]ight now very *easy* to change the contents. Double click the .mdb file. Even technical wizards at Metamor (or Ciber, or whatever) can figure that one out. [...] Jane (I think it was Jane) did some fancy footwork on the .mdb file in Gaston recently. I know our dealers do it. King County is famous for it. That's why we've never put a password on the file before. [...] Of course if I were Texas I would be more worried about modifications to our electronic ballots than to our electron logs, but that is another story I guess."

Fw: Battery Status & Charging---and too much bull!! (20 Oct 2001):

"Elections are not rocket science. Why is it so hard to get things right! I have never been at any other company that has been so miss managed."

Audit Log Entry when Previewing Reports (26 Feb 2002):

"Johnson County, KS will be doing Central Count for their mail in ballots. They will also be processing these ballots in advance of the closing of polls on election day. They would like to log into the Audit Log an entry for Previewing any Election Total Reports. They need this, to prove to the media, as well as, any candidates & lawyers, that they did not view or print any Election Results before the Polls closed.

However, if there is a way that we can disable the reporting functionality, that would be even better."


RE: sunspot.net - maryland news.htm (3 Jan 2003):

"Let's just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin [yang] if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts."

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