Diebold in Deal With Wal-Mart?

The Raw Story is reporting that some bloggers have been checking out the telephone and address listings for the many offices Diebold is claiming to have around the country. It turns out that most of them have phones numbers that go unanswered and the listed addresses turn out to be Wal-Mart or Sam’s club addresses.

According to the story, Utah voting machine decision makers were told by a representative of Diebold that the company had approximately 20 offices in Utah, but refused to give the locations when pressed.

However, when calls were made to all of these offices, only one picked up the phone. And when the addresses of offices listed under Diebold in the White Pages were visited, the addresses turned out to belong to either a Wal-Mart, a Sam’s Club, or no building at all. In the end, 16 of the 18 Diebold offices in Utah listed in the White Pages were false listings. One is in Salt Lake, and the other is in Bountiful.

A blogger checked on some of the New York listed offices, and it seems the Diebold office in Buffalo is a Wal-Mart. Raw Story goes on to report that:

Out of 13 listings in Florida, 5 turned out to be Wal-Marts. Similar office listings have been uncovered in Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire. Since the office listings exist in each state and not just in Utah, it is probably unlikely that the corporate branch in every state is acting independently of each other.

Not only does this raise the specter that the state offices are not acting independently, but you have to wonder if Wal-Mart might have a little something to do with this. Why would Diebold so consistently pick Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club addresses?

Anyway, all this from the company that wants to be the trusted source for maintaining the democratic system in America. I t hink not, and I think you should call your local Supervisor of Elections, and if they are using Diebold machines, demand a change.