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Revision as of 05:35, 4 February 2008 by 74.66.66.223 (talk) (→Criticism)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) For the electronic voting machines, see Premier Election Solutions.| File:Diebold logo.png | |
| Company type | Public (NYSE:DBD) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Integrated Technology Solutions |
| Founded | August 1859 |
| Headquarters |  North Canton, Ohio, US |
| Website | http://www.diebold.com |
Diebold, Inc. (NYSE: DBD) (pronounced DEE-bold) is a United States-based security systems corporation that is engaged primarily in the sale, manufacture, installation and service of self-service transaction systems (such as ATMs), electronic and physical security products (including vaults and currency processing systems), voting machines, and software and integrated systems for global financial and commercial markets. Diebold was incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio in August 1876, and is headquartered in the Akron-Canton area; its mailing address is the city of North Canton, but its physical address is located in the city of Green.
InterBold
Diebold and IBM created a general partnership called InterBold in 1991. The purpose of InterBold was to have IBM sell and service Diebold's ATMs outside of the United States. In exchange, IBM ceased marketing its own ATMs in the US. The InterBold partnership was dissolved in 1997 when Diebold purchased IBM's share of the partnership. IBM eventually entered into a re-distribution arrangement with a German competitor of Diebold, Wincor Nixdorf.
Premier Election Solutions / Diebold Election Systems
Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold Election Systems, is a subsidiary of Diebold that accounts for 2.4% of its gross revenue. It has entered the business of creating electronic voting terminals and solutions for government entities. Diebold entered this industry in 2001 by purchasing the assets of Global Election Systems which had been selling election equipment since 1991. This subsidiary has been the subject of controversy amid allegations surrounding the security and reliability of some of its products.
In August 2007 DES rebranded itself as Premier Election Solutions.
For criticism, and ethics concerns relating to electronic voting see Premier Election Solutions
Criticism
On July 31, 2002, Cathy Cox, Georgia's Secretary of State, signed a contract with Diebold, allowing the firm to distribute electronic voting machines throughout the state, design the ballots, and then monitor the election, without any state oversight. "" ""
In August 2003, Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold, announced that he had been a top fund-raiser for President George W. Bush and had sent a get-out-the-funds letter to 100 wealthy and politically inclined friends in the Republican Party, to be held at his home in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. When assailed by critics for the conflict of interest, he pointed out that the company's election machines division is run out of Texas by a registered Democrat. Nonetheless, he vowed to lower his political profile lest his personal actions harm the company.
In December 2005, O'Dell resigned following reports that the company was facing securities fraud litigation surrounding charges of insider trading.
In March 2007, it was reported by the Associated Press that Diebold was considering divesting itself of its voting machine subsidiary because it was "widely seen as tarnishing the company's reputation".
In August 2007, Misplaced Pages Scanner found that edits via the company's IP addresses occurred to Diebold's Misplaced Pages article, removing criticisms of the company's products, references to its CEO's fund-raising for President Bush and other negative criticism from the Misplaced Pages page about the company in November 2005.
In January 2008, it was reported that various persons who had been working at the company had had some legal discontent in their past. For instance, John Elder, (now an elections consultant), who ran a Diebold ballot printing plant, was convicted and served four years in prison on a narcotics trafficking charge. Ken Hajjar, a voting machine programming executive in New Hampshire, settled on a plea deal for his role in cocaine distribution in 1990.
Competitors
Banking hardware
See also
- Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold Election Systems
- TABS 9000
- Diebold i-Series ATMs
- Diebold Opteva ATMs
References
- About Us — At-A-Glance, Diebold. Accessed 2007-09-30.
- DeLorme. Ohio Atlas & Gazetteer. 7th ed. Yarmouth: DeLorme, 2004, p. 51. ISBN 0-89933-281-1.
- Diebold: New name, same bad voting machines!
- Diebold Election Systems to Become Premier Election Solutions
- Warner, Melanie. "Machine Politics in the Digital Age." New York Times. November 9, 2003.
- Diebold CEO resigns after reports of fraud litigation, internal woes John Byrne, December 12, 2005
- Diebold Weighs Strategy for Voting Unit
- Elsworth,Catherine. "Misplaced Pages Sleuth's tool reveals entry fiddling." Telegraph. April 16, 2007.
- http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2842.shtml