I wanted to thank each of you for a strong start to election season. Georgia, Johnson County, KS, Maryland, etc. went smoothly over the last 30 days. You may be aware that several of our competitors had trouble in Florida, which will not go unnoticed by election officials around the country. I am sure our sales organization will be able to leverage the current situation to a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Your support during the various phases of the election processes enabled these recent successes. Your pride and performance is noted throughout the entire Diebold organization. We have a long way to go for the November election, but we learned some valuable lessons with these primaries that we will apply to the general elections in November.
There are too many individuals to thank individually but it's all those individual efforts adding up to a total team success.. Your colleges at Diebold from manufacturing, procurement, finance, etc. are all providing valuable resources and assistance - sometimes behind the scenes. There are many eyes on this business internally as well as externally by analysts and you have reason to be proud.
We will not rest nor be content with pass successes because there is much yet to be done. I just you to know how proud I am of what you are accomplishing.
-----Original Message-----
From: Internal Communications
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 1:51 PM
To: DL-Diebold All; DL-Direct Marketing; DL-Manufacturer Rep
Subject: PRESS RELEASE
The following release was distributed to the news and analysts wires today.
DIEBOLD TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING TERMINALS PERFORM WELL IN PRIMARY ELECTIONS
Voters in Maryland, Georgia and Kansas Show Widespread Acceptance to New Technology
Photo available at https://www2.diebold.com/whatsnews/pr/photo.htm
NORTH CANTON, Ohio - Diebold Election Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Diebold, Incorporated, today announced its touch-screen voting terminals performed extremely well in four counties within the state of Maryland. This election marks the state's first widespread use of the new AccuVote-TS electronic touch-screen voting system to be deployed statewide for future elections.
Over 40 percent of the state's 2.7 million registered voters, located in four counties -Montgomery, Prince George's, Allegany and Dorchester - were the first to use the new electronic voting system in Tuesday's primary election.
Currently, Diebold has touch-screen voting systems in more than 170 counties in many states throughout the United States, totaling more than 35,000 voting stations. Diebold's touch-screen system was not utilized in the recent Florida primary election.
"The response from voters was absolutely positive," said Margaret Jurgensen, election director, Montgomery County Board of Elections. "I spoke to many voters after they cast their ballots, and they stated that they loved the ease of voting with the new system. Many voters commented about the ease of reading the ballot on the touch screen. One visually impaired voter was able to vote for the first time without assistance because of the ballot magnification feature of the system. As with any new technology, our election staff grew more comfortable with the system as the day progressed, and we see the implementation of the touch screen system continuing to improve as our staff becomes more familiar with the technology."
"Our first touch screen primary election was a tremendous success," stated Donna Rahe, Dorchester County election director. "The voters of Dorchester County adapted to the touch screen technology extremely well, and the combined coordination efforts of the county's election staff and Diebold Election Systems caused a very smooth transition to the new election system."
Diebold experienced similar success in August when voters in Hall and Marion counties in the state of Georgia tallied primary election results on the touch-screen voting system. Georgia is the first state in the country to implement a uniform statewide, computerized touch-screen voting system. Earlier this year, Diebold announced a $54 million agreement with Georgia officials to overhaul the state's election system technology making the state a national leader in replacing outdated election equipment.
"Georgia's new uniform electronic voting system received its first test in the Primary Election and the Diebold units passed with flying colors," said Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox, Georgia's chief elections official. "Throughout Hall and Marion Counties we heard extremely positive comments from voters and poll workers about the convenience, security and ease of use of the new AccuVote-TS units."
Voters in Johnson County, Kansas, were pleased with the touch-screen system as well. Approximately 99-percent of the voters who completed a comment card after using the system gave it a favorable rating.
"The Johnson County Election Office is proud of its reputation of making voting convenient and accessible," said Connie Schmidt, Johnson County Election Commissioner. "We are pleased to be the first county in the Midwest to deploy touch-screen voting computers to all polling places countywide."
"Considering the magnitude of these elections, which includes more than 870,000 registered voters within the four Maryland counties, we are very pleased with the results as every single vote was accurately counted," said Bob Urosevich, president of Diebold Election Systems, Inc. "Increased familiarity with the system will continue to make the process even smoother in future elections. We are working with the voters, poll workers and election officials to ensure that the entire process is intuitive and streamlined for everyone involved."
Diebold Election Systems offers a comprehensive solution that includes advanced technology, project management, service and voter outreach. The AccuVote-TS system offers voters an entirely new state-of-the-art design that represents a major leap forward in voting technology. Many voters feel comfortable using the system because the user interface is very similar to that of an automated teller machine. The reliable and efficient system accurately and securely captures each vote.