October 31, 2006
Diebold V. HBO
A new HBO documentary on electronic voting, Hacking Democracy, is drawing fire from Diebold Election Systems. Hacking Democracy premiers 11/2 at 9:00 ET.
The film draws on the research of many heroes of the ballot integrity movement -- self-described Seattle grandmother and researcher Bev Harris, John Hopkins U prof. Avi Rubin, and Harri Hursti, who publicly demonstrated how easy it was to hack into a Diebold machine.
From the HBO preview:
"Ultimately, Bev Harris' research proved that the top-secret computerized systems counting the votes in America's public elections are not only fallible, but also vulnerable to undetectable hacking, from local school board contests to the presidential race. With the electronic voting machines of three companies - Diebold, ESS and Sequoia - collectively responsible for around 80 percent of America's votes today, the stakes for democracy are high."
Suffice it to say, the doc isn't friendly to Diebold.
So Diebold, working with the Beltway PR giant Edelman, is trying to cast doubt on the credibility of the content in the film.
Diebold president Dave Byrd sent a letter 10/30 to HBO chairman Chris Albrecht demanding that factual inaccuracies be corrected by the time of broadcast and that HBO append a 30 second disclaimer to the start of the film. Specifically, Diebold claims that the company is blamed for conduct in elections run by other companies' machines; that the Harri Hursti experiment was "a complete sham," and that documentary overstates Diebold's market share.
"The material errors and material misrepresentations are so egregious that HBO should pull the documentary," Byrd writes.
Posted at 01:02 PM
Comments
WAS a backer of mcCain till today he no,s just what kerry ment and he wants to use it in a way that makes kerry look bad what a jag
james magrady | 10.31.06 03:24 PM
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Diebold is to credibility as Michael Jackson is to innocence.
rick | 11.02.06 07:39 PM
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The simple fact of the existence of an .exe file on a memory card certainly raises questions. This is not conspiracy nutjob stuff, the HBO program aired tonight should be a must for anybody that really cares about the basic fabric of our society.
atoman | 11.02.06 10:33 PM
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