August 14, 2003: Voting Machine Manufacturer Committed to Bush-Cheney Victory

Walter O’Dell, CEO of Diebold Systems, says in a fundraising letter, “I am fully committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.” O’Dell’s firm manufactures the electronic voting machines widely used in Ohio elections. Ohio’s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell (R-OH), the state official in charge of voting in that state, is also co-chair of the Ohio Bush-Cheney re-election campaign; by the November 2004 vote, Blackwell will successfully place Diebold voting machines in some 40 percent of Ohio polling places. [Hunt, 9/1/2009, pp. 13]