Report: Elections officials complain of pressure to buy products

Associated Press    14 August 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Officials with some of Ohio's county elections boards say representatives of a voting machine maker tried to strong-arm them into buying the company's products, a newspaper reported.

People acting on behalf of Diebold Inc. tried to donate money to the local parties of Democrats and Republicans who sat on the boards, the board members told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published Sunday. Elections officials in Licking and Clark counties said Diebold leaned on them to choose the North Canton-based company's machines over those of Omaha, Neb.-based competitor Election Systems & Software Inc.

ES&S itself prompted a warning from the Ohio Ethics Commission to county election boards after the company took elections officials to a concert in 2003. Diebold and ES&S have employed veteran lobbyists from both parties as they vie for the $116 million allotted to the state to revamp its voting system.

"This is a competitive process, and we anticipate that all vendors will do what they can to convince counties to do business with them," said Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.

ES&S spokeswoman Jill Friedman-Wilson said the company put a policy in place in January that prohibits any employee from endorsing a political candidate or contributing to a campaign.

"It's an outgrowth of the fact that the company believes that it's very important to avoid even the perception of a conflict of interest," she said.

Diebold spokesman Mike Jacobsen told the Dispatch that Diebold didn't know about any contributions made by its consultants and doesn't condone such efforts.

After Diebold chief executive Walden O'Dell wrote a 2003 Republican fund-raising letter vowing to help "deliver" Ohio for President Bush in 2004, Diebold barred about 200 executives and elections-division workers from all political activity except voting.

"In terms of political impartiality, they were very aware of our approach in that regard," Jacobsen said. "The spirit of that approach and those policies was meant to prevent any untoward activity."

Messages were left Sunday seeking further comment from Diebold.

Susan Gwinn, chairwoman of the Athens County Board of Elections and head of the county's Democratic Party, said Diebold consultant William Chavanne tried to give her $1,000 for the county party in October 2003 as the board was preparing to buy new voting machines.

"My concern at the time was that he was trying to influence my decision," Gwinn said, adding that she turned down the donation.

Chavanne said Diebold sent him to Athens County because Gwinn preferred machines built by ES&S, but he denied that the money was intended to sway her. Chavanne, who no longer works for Diebold, said he did not offer money directly to Gwinn or to the operating fund.

"I wasn't trying to do anything but help the party," Chavanne said.

A message was left Sunday seeking further comment from Chavanne, who has long been active in Ohio Democratic circles.

Daniel Harkins, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party, told the Dispatch that he picked up his tab and walked out of a dinner with four Diebold representatives April 26. He said they told him the county should choose Diebold because it's an Ohio-based company. The county board had already chosen ES&S.

"They really came in and told us that if we didn't buy their equipment, we weren't good Ohioans," he said.

Diebold also sent a letter to several members of the Licking County Chamber of Commerce, asking them to pressure the local elections board into choosing Diebold.

"They would have been better off letting us make our decision on our own," said J. Michael King, chairman of the Licking County Democratic Party and the county's board of elections.

Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, lost a month's pay earlier this summer after admitting he accepted a $10,000 check in January 2004 from Pasquale "Pat" Gallina, a Diebold representative. Gallina eventually wrote the check to the county Republican Party.

That donation arrived the day the county was opening bids for new voter-registration software. The Franklin County prosecutor and sheriff's detectives are investigating.

Gallina has said that the $10,000 he donated to the county Republican Party was his own money.

Richard G. Milleson, a Democrat and chairman of the Harrison County elections board, said the Damschroder incident "has cast a cloud" over the ethics of voting-machine deals.

Rodney J. Hedges, chairman of the Hocking County Republican Party and a member of the county's elections board, said donations by agents of any company to county campaign funds make voters suspicious.