Diebold Sued (Again) Over Shoddy Voting Machines

icypyr0 writes "Computer programmer Jim March and activist Bev Harris have filed suit in California state court against Diebold under a whistle-blowing statue. This is another in a series of blows dealt to the ailing company. March and Harris allege that Diebold 'used uncertified hardware and software, and modems that may have allowed election results to be published online before polls closed.' They are seeking full reimbursement for all of the voting machines purchased in California. March and Harris could collect up to 30% of the reimbursement, under the whistle-blower statute. In an interesting turn, the two are requesting that the state of California join the lawsuit. State officials have spent millions on the paperless touch screen machines; Alameda County has spent at least $11 million alone."

Who was the statue of?

[Scratch-O-Matic]

The whistle blowing statue, that is.

In unrelated news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Diebold has offered to supply test voting machines for use in jury trials in California.

Microsofts cue?

[toetagger1]

used uncertified hardware and software
Lets hope Microsoft doesn't use this as a cue to move thier OS onto those machines. Hell, next thing we know, we'll be able to vote on our X-boxes!

I've always wanted...

[Anonymous Coward]

...a whistle blowing statue. It'd look nice next to my tuba playing lawn gnome.

Re:Who was the statue of?

[Esion Modnar]

Steve McQueen, from "The Great Escape." (You know, the whistling scene...)

Re:50/50 nation means every vote really matters

[InfiniteWisdom]

The smallest election scandal is going to get magnified now.
Unless if is in favor of the incumbent president. In that case it would be unpatriotic to talk about it.

Re:Who was the statue of?

[Mikkeles]

'...against Diebold under a whistle-blowing statue.'

Would this [ucar.edu] be it?

Re: :-(

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Writing software with VB makes baby Jesus cry.

Re:Code

[kunudo]

Ah, thank god you have me to debug your code. Here ya go:

private void countvotes(bool vote,SSN){
if(vote){
Kerri+=1;
alert_SS("$SSN");
alert_IRS("$SSN");
}
else{
bush+=1;
echo "thank you, citizen, now go play somewhere else";
}
}

Re: :-(

[Anonymous Coward]

Baby Jesus? Hell, writing critical software with VB would make adult Jesus cry!

In related ? news

[elpapacito]

Diebald issued a stream of no less then 3 patches in 3 days to fix their flaming new counting software release. "This will seal the problems while the machines are sealed until SP2 is out" said a pointy haired spokeperson. "We're proactively seeking the achievement of market leadership by deploying retroactive patches to updated software. Nation trust us." he said in a stunning wordplay worth of Nostradamus fame.

Opposers of the Diebald software proposed an open-source alternative , but their open attitude apparently is preventing them from ideologically sealing anything. "Let me patch it realtime while you vote ! Hey watchout I'm patching here !! wait just another minute ... " an unidentified supporter said ; a few seconds later an angry queueing sweating roaring mob introduced him to the concept of releasing by due date. No penguin was harmed in the process.

Another angry flash mob quickly assembled in streets chanting praises of the aging, but reliable paper and pen voting system.

Re:FINALLY!

[puppet10]

Not sure how they can claim a recountable paper trail, "would do nothing to ensure greater trust in vote tabulations".

I wonder if they'd let me take control of their personal finances without a paper record - because the paper record would do nothing to ensure greater trust in the financial calculations.

It's worse than that...

[Anonymous Coward]

Every time you write an app in VB, God kills a kitten.

Heres the solution..

[t_allardyce]

Why not just wait until election day and call out names and then ask everyone in the state to put their hands up if they want that person? I think it would just about be better than Diebold.