A New Role for Defense Contractors?: Counting Votes *LEADING DEFENSE CONTRACTOR BIDS FOR DIEBOLD*

A New Role for Defense Contractors?: Counting Votes

By The Editorial Board

There has long been good reason to worry about Diebold voting machines. Many are black box electronic machines that do not produce paper records, so voters have to accept the results they report on faith.

Diebold, however, has not inspired much faith. It has been accused of illegally using uncertified software on its voting machines, exposing elections to possible tampering, and of making glitchy machines that misrecord votes.

Then theres the little matter of the companys CEO signing a letter before the 2004 election in which his machines would be counting many of the votes saying that he was committed to helping deliver Ohio to President Bush.

Now, theres a new reason to worry that Diebold plays such a large role in presidential elections. United Technologies has made an unsolicited $3 billion bid to take over Diebold.

United Technologies is one of the nations leading defense contractors, which means it has an enormous corporate interest in who gets elected President.

When we heard the news, we couldnt help thinking of President Dwight D. Eisenhowers famous warning, in his farewell address, about the dangerously increasing influence of the military-industrial complex.

Eisenhower told the American people that

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Given his blunt warning, we suspect that Eisenhower would be appalled to learn that a defense contractor could be counting the votes in the next presidential election.

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a-new-role-for-defense-contractors-counting-votes/