This is a letter to the editor I published at the Daily Advance. Posted here for posterity, since they have no online archive:
On January 25th, your paper reported that Diebold had withdrawn their electronic voting systems from North Carolina districts rather than comply with new North Carolina certification standards. That same day, the other news sources reported lawmakers had actually caved in to Diebold and would certify their machines without meeting the requirements outlined in North Carolina’s “Public Confidence in Elections” law.
This is outrageous, and came three days after a judge in Raleigh threw Diebold’s arguments for refusing to comply with the new standards out of court. Why is Diebold so incredibly terrified of the public knowing how their software operates? What are they hiding?
In Ohio, crucial votes recorded on these machines conflicted with a reputable Newspaper poll between 22 and 28 points on three issues (freepress.org, 11/11/2005), a statistical impossibility. The GAO has confirmed these machines are easily hacked and computer experts were able to successfully hack a system in Florida.
You have done your readers a great disservice in neglecting to cover this latest development. Lobbying efforts to eject Diebold’s defrauding of democracy in our state depend on an informed public. You cripple efforts to ensure transparency and veracity in electronic voting by falsely reporting that the local community had won, when, in fact, Diebold has won, worming their fraudulent activities back into our electoral process. Only now, Albemarle residents don’t realize they need to continue fighting.