[Texgreen] Diebold Demands that HBO Cancel Documentary on Voting Machines

[margaret]

Diebold Demands that HBO Cancel Documentary on Voting Machines

http://justanotherblowback.blogspot.com/2006/11/diebold-demands-that- 
hbo-cancel.html

Diebold Demands that HBO Cancel Documentary on Voting Machines
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY BLOOMBERG NEWS

Diebold Inc. insisted that cable network HBO cancel a documentary
that questions the integrity of its voting machines, calling the
program inaccurate and unfair.

The program, "Hacking Democracy," is scheduled to debut Thursday,
five days before the 2006 U.S. midterm elections. The film claims
that Diebold voting machines aren't tamper-proof and can be manipulated
to change voting results.

"Hacking Democracy" is "replete with material examples of inaccurate
reporting," Diebold Election System President David Byrd said in a
letter to HBO President and Chief Executive Chris Albrecht posted
on Diebold's Web site. Short of pulling the film, Monday's letter
asks for disclaimers to be aired and for HBO to post Diebold's
response on its Web site.

According to Byrd's letter, inaccuracies in the film include the
assertion that Diebold, whose election systems unit is based in
Allen, Texas, tabulated more than 40 percent of the votes cast in
the 2000 presidential election.

The letter says Diebold wasn't in the electronic voting business
in 2000, when disputes over ballots in Florida delayed President
Bush's victory for more than a month and raised questions about the
reliability of electronic voting machines.

"We stand by the film," said Jeff Cusson, a spokesman for HBO, which
is a unit of Time Warner Inc.

"We have no intention of withdrawing it from our schedule. It appears
that the film Diebold is responding to is not the film HBO is
airing."

David Bear, a spokesman for Diebold, said the company bought another
firm, Global Elections, in 2002 that served about 8 percent of
balloting in 2000, including voters in Florida. The company, which
hasn't seen the film, based its complaints on material from the HBO
Web site, Bear said.

This is Diebold's second recent defense of its system. On Sept. 26,
Byrd wrote to Jann Wenner, editor and publisher of Rolling Stone,
saying a story written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., "Will the Next
Election Be Hacked?" was "error-riddled" and that readers "deserve
a better researched and reported article."

The HBO documentary is based on the work of Bev Harris, the Renton
woman who founded BlackBoxVoting.org, which monitors election
accuracy. In 2004 the attorney general of California took up a
whistle-blower claim filed by Harris against Diebold and settled
with the company for $2.6 million in December.

SOURCE: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Make up your own mind as to whether or not these elections are
rigged:

Black Box Voting http://blackboxvoting.org/

Rigged Elections Exposed
http://justanotherblowback.blogspot.com/2006/10/rigged-usa-elections- 
exposed.html

A Tale of Two Brothers
http://www.residentbush.com/Aftermath-2004_Angry-Girl.htm