Diebold, Inc. (stock symbol: DBD) CEO Walden O’Dell has resigned due to what company officials describe in a press release as “personal reasons”. Reuters is reporting that O’Dell will be replaced by the company’s president and chief operating officer, Thomas Swidarski.
As The BRAD BLOG reported exclusively late last week, the filing of a securities fraud class action litigation against the company, O’Dell and other current and former members of their Board of Directors is now imminent. The BRAD BLOG has learned that the case may be filed in Ohio Federal District court as early as today or tomorrow. We will, of course, have more details when that occurs.
O’Dell has faced a great deal of criticism for his statement to Republican fundraisers, prior to the 2004 Presidential Election, that Diebold he (see correction explanation below) was committed to delivering the electoral vote of the state of Ohio to George W. Bush. O’Dell was part of Bush’s “Rangers and Pioneers,” a group of individuals who had raised at least $100,000 each for Bush/Cheney’s 2004 re-election campaign.
In the wake of the controversy concerning O’Dell’s involvement with the Bush/Cheney campaign, a corporate policy was instituted to disallow involvement in political campaign by senior executives at the company. A report in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer late last week, however, revealed that several Diebold executives had continued to donate to GOP campaigns even after the policy was enacted. The new CEO, Swidarski appears to have given the maximum allowable $2000 contribution himself to George W. Bush’s campign in 2004.
Diebold, along with Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) are the two largest Voting Machine Companies in America. Between them, they account for equipment which tallies more than 80% of America’s votes.
The North Canton, Ohio-based company has faced several recent financial and upper-level management problems. A recent plummet of 15.5% in the once-venerable company’s stock price occurred just days after another BRAD BLOG exclusive in which we reported on a company insider, dubbed “DIEB-THROAT”, who had drawn comparisons in the companies management to the now-bankrupt Enron.
A source (not DIEB-THROAT) familiar with the company is intrigued by the news and expressed amazement that O’Dell is stepping down as both CEO and Chairman of the Board. “This was his baby,” commented the source to BRAD BLOG. The source suggests this move “has the earmarks of an internal coup d’etat” given the dearth of other explanations beyond “personal reasons” as given by the company for O’Dell’s departure.
As we reported last Thursday in our exclusive concerning Diebold’s mounting legal problems, the company has been plagued by such issues for some time.
A “Privileged and Confidential” document [PDF] from Diebold’s law firm Jones Day was leaked to the Oakland Tribune last year revealing the companies legal fees for just one two month period in the state of California were estimated at $535,000 – $925,000. The document discussed costs related to a $2.6 million dollar settlment the company eventually reached with the state, and outlined fees for “legal analysis of potential criminal violations,” “White collar criminal law attorney pre-grand jury investigative advice” and even costs to “Monitor selected Web sites to gain key intelligence.“
Our source, DIEB-THROAT was not surprised to hear of the pending litigation. “I am not surprised that such a lawsuit has developed [as] the company consistently offered Wall Street deceptive information.”
The BRAD BLOG has been told there will be details on the litigation within the next 24 hours. We will, of course, report all such developments once they are confirmed.
CORRECTION: A reader correctly pointed out that O’Dell promised that he, not necessarily his company, Diebold, as we originally reported, was committed to delivering the state of Ohio to George W. Bush in the 2004 election in his now-infamous fundraising letter to Republicans. More details here on that letter, here….
WOW! This is real new! Thanks Brad for your work. We may just get to really vote in the future.
I just called one of the News editors at the "Tallahassee Democrat" in Leon County Florida where supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho proved that his Diebold voting machines could be hacked. Apparently she felt this is not newsworthy! I note that this paper has recently been bought by Knight-Ridder. Any connections?
Amazing. Great work, BradBlog. We will see if securities fraud is linked to election fraud.
Die Evil Diebold, Die – signed Bun-Bun
O’Dell should have been ousted after vowing to deliver Ohio’s vote to George Bush’s camp. Diebold contributes heavily to GWB and in turn is handed a lock on electronic voting throughout the U.S. Are you kidding me? What the hell is going on here?
This is great news. Hoping for a voting system with a true paper trail for recounts.
Still have a long road ahead, but this sure does lift my spirits of hope! We can’t change anything in this country until that is fixed first.
Thanks for the great work about this topic, Brad. Without people like you speaking up, (especially you with all your interviews on air and here) we’d all be doomed in ’06 and ’08. I think I feel a bigger ray of hope now, especially with news like this :o)
Wonder if O’Dell is going to talk any. Could get even more interesting….
I always thought the name Wally O’Dell belongs to a Mayberry character.
Suitable for this Mayberry Machiavelli admin.
High FIVES, everyone!!!!!!
Great News!
colleenmilitarymom –
it reminds me of National Lampoon’s Vacation – Wally World
The AP is reporting that they called O’Dell to get a statement and all he would say, before hanging up the phone, was. "I wish Diebold well".
It seems that this was not a friendly change of command.
Sorry, but I’m not as excited about this as the rest of you guys. The CEO stepping down doesn’t change the fact that they’re still trying to ram their piece of crap voting machines through states like North Carolina and California.
The stock didn’t go up after two states reneged on their commitments to decertify Diebold’s machines. That was good news for Diebold; the stock should have rallied.
Insiders knew better. The shareholder suit is focused on statements made by Diebold, either publicly or in a prospectus, on Oct. 22, 2003, that the company never refuted but that were later shown to be false. In theory, these could have nothing to do with the 2004 election (Diebold makes ATM machines as well as election machines),
but O’Dell’s resignation proves without a shadow of a doubt that they were about election machines.
This is big, friends. Hallelujah.
Another one bites the dust…
Now, if he could be indicted for something or other.
at 7:30, when i refreshed this page lines ran across all of the sentances in every brad post.WTF? someone really doesn’t like all the truth telling on this site.!!! brad is making the establishment nervous!!
Or, as Beaver would say, "Gee Wally, what are we gonna do now"?
Wally was always smarter than Beaver, but Beaver always seemed to get the last word. In the Diebold case "Beaver" doesn’t represent truth and honesty or clean elections, but angry stockholders who are blaming Wally for the Diebold’s low stock price.
Typical Republicans. Always focused on $$$$$. As someone who spent 28 years with Wall Street firms, I can tell you this is typical. Cheating is O.K., trading on inside information is business as usual, hyping your stock is just good marketing. But if the stock goes down…that’s a crime that doesn’t pay.
RLM,
Thats what I always figured about the stock market,
if you don’t have insider info, or a pile of money to buy and sell enough stock to manipulate the prices, or, unless your real lucky, your minor amount goes towards the big boys yacht money eventually
BRAVO BRAD…Thanks for all of your hard work. The battle isn’t over yet and everyone must write, email or call the NY Times (letters@nytimes.com) and Washington Post (letters@washpost.com) and demand an investigative Reporter look into all of the Diebold and ES&S voting and vote tabulating machines and their impact in Florida and Ohio—California’s next on their hit list with Bruce McPherson (R) now appointed by Arnold to conduct elections in California and a right-winger—Jeff Johnson–now in charge of the L.A. Times that will deny anything is wrong with Diebold and ES&S.
DON’T WAIT…DO IT TODAY…DEMOCRACY AND OUR COUNTRY DEPENDS ON IT…
Agreed with that…And also if you belong to any groups or know people, contact the justice department…
Tell them to move full speed ahead to shut down Diebold or ES&S both based on fraudulent testing that never took place.
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Here’s others who can help…
ellen@votetrustusa.org , contact1@votersunite.org
Go get em…This is the END OF DIEBOLD…..And finally it will be the end of ES&S or Sequoia also, if we can get them to permanently abandon the DREs. PAPER BALLOTS ONLY PERIOD!!!! NO COMPROMISES, EVER.
AUTOMARK PAPER BALLOTS OR SCANNERS RANDOMLY AUDITED……NOTHING ELSE!!!! DO NOT EVER SURRENDER YOUR VOTE.
Doug E.
O’Dell steps down, but the threat remains. The "train" he started is still rolling down the hill.
I often think of the quote by David Cobb that headlines this blog, "About "Either every vote is sacred…". Of course, I totally agree; however, it would be a far more accurate quote had he limited to the last four words of his statement, "…Democracy is a sham" – at least, as it pertains to the current state of affairs in The USA.
I saw the Ukraine swiftly right the wrong that was done in their election. I see the USA "swimming through the mud" of corporate control and propaganda, with over half its people not even realizing (and maybe not even caring) that there is even an issue here.
Interesting stuff. Do you notice the media embargo on the story?
Election delivered Sire! Someone should prop his mouth wide open with a mirror, write GOT EXIT STRATEGY on his forehead and deliver him to the White House tonight. Wally: you are entitled to a distinguished award for being an American dirtbag loser directly responsible with throwing the 2004 Presidential election. Why don’t you become born again and tell the whole truth now?
Let’s put this another way. The keeper of our democracy, DIEBOLD, which counts 80% of America’s votes, is under fraud investigation. This is unacceptable! The company which holds our democracy in its hands should be the most honest, trustworthy company in America! CEO’s don’t just resign!
If this isn’t the top story in the MSM, that the company which counts our democracy’s votes, is under fraud investigation, then there’s your proof that Corporate America runs the media and this country. It’s embarrassing! Internet sites like this should do a story about the MSM avoiding this most important story.
As a lawyer who brings acytions for fraud, I can tell you when a CEO and Chairman resigns before a looming securities fraud case is filed, it means the company and the Board has uncovered something significant on that CEO, and has forced his resignation before the news comes out–to cut further losses. I would be surprised, however, if it is directly related to machine fraud—but I would certaibly keep my eye on devlopments, and see what they have on this guy.
What if he resigned due to the 15% decrease in stock price that was realized recently?
I’m just saying that it’s possible.
12 December 2005
Dear Gov. Dean,
Let’s take Wally at his word … continued at the link:
http://www.democraticundergroun...03×404707
Peace,
UL
12 December 2005
Dear Gov. Dean,
Let’s take Wally at his word … continued at the link:
http://www.democraticundergroun...03×404707
Peace,
UL
Robin- A spokesperson already admitted it has to do with the elections….They’ve done illegal things and consistently lied on the record.
It ALL has to do with elections….and the traitors who carry them.
Doug E.
:crazy: Is it Diebold or the neocons rigging elections? I don’t get how this is going toward making our votes count for real. :crazy:
I’m scouring the MSM sites right now searching the search engines… not a peep of this. SHOCKING!
Once more Brad Blog is WAY the hell ahead of the curve.
And once more I’ll hear about it all tomorrow morning on the fantastic Stephanie Miller show 😉 Stephanie and Jim, you guys rock the damn house.
Anyone who hasn’t signed the petition asking Senator Boxer to take the lead on the issue of election fraud, please do so now!
http://www.petitiononline.com/boxer123
This Diebold shakeup could represent a toehold for politicians to get in on this and finally expose the stolen election machine to America. Let’s every one of us do everything we can to see that this happens.
if it gets to court "discovery" might be interesting
Agent: Put two and two together since it obviously doesn’t matter….the neocons ARE Diebold. The neocons OWN Diebold & the other two voting companies anyway…….
Look up "Bob Urosovich" for starters…
Doug E
It would seem to me that the stockholders do have a legitimate complaint about the quality of the voting machines as compared to the quality of the ATM machines.
And I think it right that the CEO take the heat. If only the administration understood this principle of accountability that Diebold is animating.
Diebold will continue to experience these conflicts until the quality control processes that apply to the ATM side of the business also apply to the voting machine side of the business.
Make em right and we will buy them, keep making them wrong and you are going down.
I dont’ agree, Dredd (#37),
I don’t think anybody should ever buy from a corporation with the background that Diebold has. I think we should assume the worst from such a company. They have only lost their top guy, there are still plenty of folks working there who have been involved in election fraud. Shut ’em down.
Buy paper ballots that voters can verify and machines that can count ’em at the precinct level with an open process that anyone can watch.
Also, make sure election officials (again, out in the open…) do a random recount of 5% or so of each county’s votes, just to check on the scan machines doing the counting. We need a vote of the people, by the people and for the people…
peace.
shw
Jim, thanks so much for the plug. Your earlier comments to me haven’t appeared on the website yet because my marketing gal has been too busy to show my how to do it. It was supposed to have happened a week ago.
Being computer illiterate is the eighth deadly sin.
Anyone remember "Babylon 5"? I’ve started watching that from the beginning (rented from Netflix).. It’s amazing to see how part of the core conflict for season 2 and 3 (only on disk 3 of season 3) is about the Vice President killing the President (coup), loading up special positions with ‘friends’ (DoJ, etc), clamping down on the media (though, the ISN network didn’t seem to be corperate owned like now, but).. Then, one day, the President declares "martial law" for some reason or other.. Disbands the Senate and all the Senators who opposed him have to run and hide, colonies declare independance, bombing of civilians start as a way to stop insurgency.. and the News Anchor comes out amidst shooting, disrupting an otherwise "calm" (read: fixed) news cast and says "this has been going on for over a year! we had to keep quiet! all hell is breaking loose, they’re in here with guns!" and everyone is stunned..
Just creeps me out that we have people like that -now- actually trying to take over our country.. In the show, the entire Earth was under one government, but I bet that government/world solidarity didn’t take over like Bush is trying to do.. Scary how sometimes Science Fiction is spot-on about current events, even when that Sci-Fi is almost 10 years old.
Back in the day, the electoral college made sense. It wasn’t a quick fix to get the ballots (or official counts) from California to Washington D.C.. Today, we can get the certifed PAPER tallies in a brief case and on a plane and to D.C. in a few hours. There’s no need for the electoral college.. And, it would seem to me that the stipulation in the Constitution about "1/2 of the elctorates have to show the winner winning" was to make sure that one electorate didn’t have such high counts as to be able to "rig" an election.
There is -no- reason not to use paper ballots. If the 2000 election as viewed from Florida shows us anything (all the crappy voting systems out there), it shows us that we simply need to devise a better mouse trap, not find a way to vaporize the mouse. Have polling stations that have staffers who clear the chads from the machines to prevent those "full troughs", for example.. hell, develope a ballot system that doesn’t have chads! How hard is it to have "big" ballots like in Canada and have big red X stamps? This crap about helping disabled people vote so we have electronic voting is bullshit, we can find ways to help them vote on paper just as easily. As a computer geek and Software Engineer, I really don’t believe that the corrupt folks out there can be trusted to have machines involved. We need to have a way that the masses can see for themselves that the results are valid, not a way that turns the entire thing into invisible and manipulatable data.
Yeah, but Diebold’s stock is up over 5%…that’s gotta make you wonder what insiders are holding it up
Many Thaaaaanks from Yaaaaank BRAD!
(And a BIG OLE SLOPPY KISS too, YeeHaw!!!)
Now let’s go get the bad guys in Florida :
http://www.iwilltryit.com/fixed1.htm
O’Dell’s resignation doesn’t change Diebold’s dilemma regarding the class-action suit, which remains a lose/lose for the company.
Fight the suit and bring unwanted publicity to the company’s role (not just O’Dell’s) in the 2004 election. And, if the preponderance of evidence favors the plaintiff (not "beyond a reasonable doubt" as in a criminal case), maybe lose in court.
Settle the suit and admit the statement on Oct. 22, 2003 was false and misleading. This would be especially damaging here. The 23-month class eligibility tells me the company was insisting all along that they had not lied, which robs them of the chance to now say, "It was an honest mistake."
And, as Robin points out, C.E.O.’s don’t resign over honest mistakes. Still, I suspect if the stock had rallied in response to the good news from North Carolina and California for the company, O’Dell would have stayed on the job.
Astute analysis, Bob.
And since Bob is too humble to plug his own book here, I’ll do it. "The Lindbergh Syndrome" is some great writing, all about how heroes are made. Plenty of astute and eye-opening analysis in there, too, and canny observation of history and trends… all in a breezy, engaging, easy to read style!
I’ve just finished the book, and I think it’s terrific. So support a fellow patriot and pick up a copy at Amazon today–or buy one for someone as a, ahem, HOLIDAY gift.
You’ve been all over this forever. Thanks for your tireless efforts, and congratulations Brad!
Shannon #38
There are no problems with the Diebold ATM machines because they have quality control and valid government oversight.
You probably use them if you do any ATM interaction and feel safe so doing.
Hating to the point of causing thousands of Diebold employees, who have children and other mouths to feed, to loose their jobs because one division is a rogue is excess.
It is a neoCon idea to kill everyone because of the corruption of a few. Bloodlust does not impress me.
Nor does injustice. Since I only want to be corrected for my own misdeeds, I cannot adhere to a notion of punishing everyone in Diebold because of the misdeeds of a few.
I will subscribe to your notion that Diebold must die if you can show me everyone there is corrupt.
For Shannon and Dredd: Surely everyone who works for Diebold is not corrupt. But until the people in power there who are corrupt are sent packing, I agree with Shannon that we’d all be better off with the company out of business…as Enron is. Honest people lost jobs at Enron, but would we argue that the company should still be allowed to operate? Diebold’s demise, or at least the purging of all crooks, might become a healthy consequence of the class-action suit.
The corporate ladder is like the military, but with less internal accountability. Diebold is responsible to its stockholders for honest statements (this is where they’ve slipped up, apparently) but in the day-to-day functioning of the company, everyone
"reports" to somebody else. If an honest person reports misconduct to a dishonest boss, the effect is the same as if they were both crooked. The person in charge simply says, "Thank you for the information," then ignores it. Nothing good happens unless the subordinate blows the whistle to the press, and the press reports it.
At Diebold, the bad guys at the top went even further. They "encouraged" lower-level employees to contribute to Bush. Anyone who said "no" had to wonder "Is my job in jeopardy for not cooperating?"
In other words, it isn’t easy to separate bad guys from good guys and say the good guys should get to keep their jobs. The bad guys will always have disproportionate power, unless (rare case) the board of directors consists of high-minded people with the integrity to throw the top executives out. That’s rare, because the C.E.O. and president are always board members themselves, and the directors are typically their cronies.
It’s like a college fraternity. Who blows the whistle on a frat brother?
RLM #44
You said "Surely everyone who works for Diebold is not corrupt. But until the people in power there who are corrupt are sent packing, I agree with Shannon that we’d all be better off with the company out of business … as Enron is."
Enron is in bankruptcy, not out of business. It can reemerge without the crooks and do good work.
If the world takes the view that since the neoCons advocate torture and other heineous acts, all Americans should be punished, you and I are going to suffer because of what the admin has done.
Even tho we actively oppose their wrongs.
That is unjust and I do not subscribe to it.
O.K., Dredd. Make it "temporarily out of business." Sure, give the company a chance to reform. If they can, fine. But it won’t happen under the current management team, I promise you.
The bosses insist there’s nothing wrong. Since no Diebold employee has been caught in any overt act of fraud, they’re correct in the strictest legal sense.
In point of fact, it’s very possible that no Diebold executive knows who has been hacking its machines, though they damn well know it’s being done by someone.
But strict legality can’t be the standard we judge them by. Their machines are being used to rig elections, they know it, and aren’t doing anything to prevent it. They’re like a gun company selling Uzis in a crime-ridden ghetto and claiming "Guns don’t kill people, people kill people."
The bosses run the company, and O’Dell’s successors clearly do not include whistle-blowers. So unless Diebold is shut down long enough to put new people in charge, I say the fate of innocent employees is less important than the greater good of clean elections. If Diebold can be saved after that, great. I’d give current employees the right to reclaim their jobs, in the same way the G.I. bill guaranteed soldiers their jobs back after W.W. II.
It is interesting (and ominous) that Swidarski will be the new chief. Swidarski was the head of Diebold Election Systems. Weren’t we told that Diebold was mostly a banking machine company, and that the voting machine subsidiary was an incovenient acquisition of which Diebold was even considering divesting?
The ascension of Swidarski seems to mean that this is a reverse takeover: executives of the smaller voting machine company are taking control of the much larger banking machine company which acquired it.
Like when Apple bought NeXT, and then the NeXT people took control of Apple.
I’m afraid this means that Diebold’s banking machines will start acting like their voting machines, not the other way around.