Dow PattenWho Woulda Thunk?
The Diebold touchscreens are going to be really expensive over the term of the contract, so expensive that some cities will have to go back to paper ballots, according to this
Trib Article.
“I’m not sure any of us realized how much it is going to cost to own and operate this system,” said Michael Cragun, elections director for the Lieutenant Governor’s Office.
In July, 2004, a whole bunch of Utah’s computer science professors (both the Y and the U) and others had this to say before the Lt. Gov. signed the deal with Diebold:
PROBLEM: INSUFFICIENT DETAIL ON UP-FRONT AND DOWNSTREAM COSTS Costs for storage, transportation, set up, connectivity, physical security, cleaning, maintenance, and upgrades must be specified by each vendor. The present RFP does not sufficiently specify how those costs are to be identified and calculated.
Rather than heed that advice, the Lt. Governor’s office proceeded with the flawed request for proposal and ended up with fiscal mess detailed in the Trib article.
December 17th, 2006 at 9:10 am
PROBLEM: INSUFFICIENT DETAIL ON UP-FRONT AND DOWNSTREAM COSTS.
Sounds like anything, anywhere, america.
December 17th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Starting with the last election, I’m signed up to vote by mail from now on anyway. But I still hate paying for Diebold’s election-fixing machines.
December 17th, 2006 at 9:47 am
Dow, I miss you!
I remember well the public input meeting where Lt. Gov Herbert listened to one after another expert and professional, because they cared, stand up and tell the the lt. Governor that electronic voting was a bad idea for many reasons.
And I remember the look on his face when he thanked each person and assured them their comments would be taken into consideration. It was clear as the day is long, he had already committed to Diebold and we were rubes wasting our time trying to educate a man on issues of which he had little knowledge and no intention of accumulating.
December 17th, 2006 at 9:48 am
Herbert should be brought down. He has well demonstrated a careless disregard for Utahns, our intelligence, and our expertise. He was and is in Diebold’s pocket.
Lt. Gov Herbert represents everything that is bad in a gov’t official. politician, civil servant and human being. He shall not be forgiven or forgotten.
It appears now, he is going to give away our west desert water to Souther Nevada while paying lip service to the people of Calico and the basin.
December 17th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
It’s simple, Gary expressed his full and unremediable responsibility for this purchase. All we need to do is to take him for his word. His pocket is deep enough to support the added costs of this wonderful technology, so, I insist that he cover it. He specifically swore that he would. So, Gary, Off your ass…even if you end up poor. Harry Truman, a democrat, did as much.
December 17th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
I grizzle, I grumble. Gary Herbert is a god among men. Bow down.