Diebold's Letter to Rolling Stone and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Response

September 26, 2006

Mr. Jann Wenner
Editor and Publisher
Rolling Stone
1290 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10104 - 0298

Subject: "Will The Next Election Be Hacked?"

Mr. Kennedy should have made serious efforts to verify the validity of his article's sources and assertions. He did not even contact Diebold Election Systems for comment. In doing so, he would have learned that his so-called whistleblower undermines his own case, and the claims he makes fail to hold up under bright light of the truth.

The whistleblower in this article was not involved in the system implementation in Georgia for the duration he claims. On July 23, 2002, the Georgia Secretary of State's office directly requested that Mr. Hood be removed from his duties as a voter outreach instructor because of poor performance. This request is clearly documented in a letter from the Secretary of State's office, which is attached.

After a review of the facts provided below, we believe you will come to the determination that this story falls short of serious journalistic standards.

We're in the business of supporting our democracy, so our credibility and independence is imperative. While we're reluctant to be perceived as entering the political fray, we feel compelled to address in a vigorous and factual fashion these false accusations, which foster fear.

Mr. Hood, a.k.a. the whistleblower, was a contractor for Diebold in Georgia and was to conduct a voter outreach program in the state of Georgia. However, as stated in a letter dated July 23, 2002, the Secretary of State's office requested the removal of Chris Hood from his role working in the state. The letter reads, in part:

"In light of the limited timeframe, resources and opportunities that we have to contribute to the success of the nation's largest electronic voting deployment, we are requesting that a more appropriate resource be provided to support a fully coordinated voter education effort. With that perspective in mind, it is our position that Mr. Hood and his organization are not providing maximum benefit in their services to the State of Georgia in our efforts to help educate Georgia voters about the new voting system. Therefore, we respectfully request that Diebold Election Systems, Inc., review the current assignment of resources and make the appropriate changes necessary for the State of Georgia to achieve its voter education goals." Michael Barnes, Assistant Director of Elections.

Immediately upon receiving this letter, Diebold Election Systems removed Mr. Hood from his responsibilities within the state. He no longer contributed to the implementation process in Georgia. Yet the allegations contained in Mr. Kennedy's article make it appear as if Mr. Hood were there and working with the system on a daily basis.

For example, Mr. Hood mischaracterizes the "patch." The patch was an operating system modification, not a modification to the tabulation system as implied in this article. This modification was not completed and available for installation until after August 8, 2002, at least two weeks after Mr. Hood was removed from his position in Georgia. Clearly, his reference "We ran the election" is not factual.

There are additional errors and inconsistencies in Mr. Hood's claims and throughout Mr. Kennedy's article:

"We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it did not do," Hood says. "The curious thing is the very swift, covert way this was done."

First of all, Mr. Hood was not even working on the project at the time. Secondly, the election review panel within the state of Georgia reviewed the operating system software before implementation. It was not done covertly, as alleged by Mr. Hood.

"It was an unauthorized patch."

Again, this statement is wrong. Modifications to the operating system of the units did not require federal certification. However, complete logic and accuracy testing on every unit was implemented by the respective jurisdictions following insertion of the modification to insure system accuracy.

"Diebold also illegally installed uncertified software in machines used in the 2004 presidential primaries."