The American Trial Lawyers Association

Most people in this country have been in this situation - You need to call customer service about a problem or complaint. While this process is one of the most nauseating and infuriating ones in that you'll ever experience, you should at least take solace in the fact that you are at least calling the right place. Now imagine if you went to cast your electronic ballot on a Diebold machine, it doesn't work properly, so you decide to call the company. Instead of a friendly Diebold customer service rep, you end up talking to a Wal-Mart greeter.


This wasn't the result of a crossed wire - It was the result of fraud and deception on the part of Diebold. Across the country, the company has been listing bogus addresses and phone numbers in an effort to prevent having to deal with voters or even the press. The majority of their listings either lead people back to Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, or to buildings that simply don't exist. Raw Story has the exclusive:


A quick investigation by Bob Fertik on Democrats.com revealed that a similar scam existed in New York, with another Diebold listing in Buffalo turning out to be a Wal-Mart. Out of 13 listings in Florida, 5 turned out to be Wal-Marts. Similar office listings have been uncovered in Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire. Since the office listings exist in each state and not just in Utah, it is probably unlikely that the corporate branch in every state is acting independently of each other.


There is doubt as to whether this could end up being prosecuted in court as a false-claims lawsuit. As of now, there is no knowledge of any written statement claiming that Diebold “has about 20 offices in Utah.” Without a written statement, it would be difficult to establish any lawsuit.


This is not the first time Diebold has found itself under fire for questionable business practices. Shortly before the 2002 election, Georgia's secretary of state, Cathy Cox, discovered that an unauthorized patch had been installed on some of the voting machines. The state of California ordered that 15,000 of its Diebold voting machines not be used in the 2004 elections due to flaws that the company failed to disclose. Maryland's House of Delegates voted to ban the company from its electronic voting in 2006. The company has come under fire on numerous occasions for failing to protect its software from hackers.


We want to hear from you on this. If you have experienced this problem, or if you have an actual phone number for a local office, please send it to us.

Labels: Democrats, Diebold, Fraud, Premier Election Systems, Report, Utah, Voting Machine, Wal-Mart