BBV: Diebold Protects Foundation of US Democracy. No joke?

[mountebank]

I'm still trying to figure out if this press release is a joke. Their M.O. really is to get rid of the hard copy!

NORTH CANTON, Ohio, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD - News), a leader in providing security systems and solutions for nearly 145 years, is now safeguarding the foundation of America's history, the Charters of Freedom: the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, in three customized high-tech vaults installed at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030916/cltu034_1.html

[AndyTiedye]

1. That Wasn't a Vault they put those in

It was a shredder :cry:

[DrBlix]

2. One of Diebolds Million dollar PR first moves

They talked about in their recent teleconference meeting. To show that they are honest and trustworthy as is George Washington, who didn't cut down the cherry tree.

[Old and In the Way]

3. One question.....

Why isn't Diebold not pushing printing systems as an add-on? I assume they have an RS-232 or serial port to do this, right? Since when doesn't a company not exploit an opportunity to sell add-on equipment and the paper rolls that'd need to be purchased?

This is a marketing guys dream....the consumer demanding more costs be added to the product.

And if they believe in safeguarding democracy so much, why aren't they agreeing that a back-up makes sense....chips fail, machines breakdown...why wouldn't they want to be conservative with this fallback safety factor?

[mountebank]

4. Apparently....

There are other, better answers floating around on DU - but since I'm following my own thread, I'll answer.

Election officials seem to claim that printers would a) cost too much money (this was refuted in several places), b) be likely to break (how many times in your life have you NOT received a printed receipt from an ATM when you requested one?), c) discriminate against the blind (other options are available to them, like audio confirmation).

I don't know if Diebold itself has ever gone on record against printers. I think some of their machines have the capacity to convert over to printing systems....am I right on this?

Anyway, the proper answer to this question is floating around in some DU archive, I know not where.

[Old and In the Way]

5. I have no doubt that they can be added.

Thermal printers are cheap and I suspect that a braille version could also be developed for specialized applications.

The real question is why doesn't Diebold react to a consumer complaint by offering this as an add-on? I have yet to see anything that even indicates that they think this is a good idea.

Maybe the Democratic Party could spring for them......