$10,000 check not from us, Diebold says

Election official punished for passing donation along

Akron Beacon Journal    20 July 2005

Diebold Corp., the Green-based maker of electronic voting machines, is denying any involvement in a $10,000 check one of its outside consultants handed to Franklin County's elections director on a day the board was opening bids for new voter-registration software.

But that check has landed the Columbus-area election director in hot water.

Matthew Damschroder will lose 30 days' pay for forwarding a $10,000 check to the Republican Party from an outside consultant representing Diebold.

Damschroder acknowledged last week that the consultant, Pasquale ``Pat'' Gallina of Celebrezze & Associates, came to his office and offered $10,000 in January 2004 as the board was considering which firm to award its software business.

Damschroder told Gallina to make the check out to the Franklin County Republican Party as a donation.

Diebold didn't get the software contract, and Damschroder said he never recommended the company. But Damschroder said he should not have taken the check.

Damschroder used poor judgment when he accepted the donation and violated an agency rule against soliciting or accepting political contributions on the job, Chairman William A. Anthony Jr. said.

Diebold spokesman Mike Jacobsen said Celebrezze & Associates was employed by Diebold to promote the company's touch-screen election system. He said that if the consulting firm is proved to have provided the check in the name of Diebold, it will be fired.

Diebold announced in June 2004 six months after the check incident that company executives are forbidden to make political contributions. Jacobsen said the ban on contributions was initiated as early as October 2003 and was made clear to everyone involved with the company, including the consultants.

``The policy was not formalized, but it definitely was our approach at that time (January),'' Jacobsen said.

Ohio political contribution records show only one contribution by Celebrezze & Associates for $10,000 to Citizens for Tax Repeal, an organization founded by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

Jacobsen said Diebold employs sales personnel, but said the company uses political consultants to deal with elections officials because there are so many county and state officials to approach. Ohio has 88 counties.