Post by Moses on Apr 1, 2005 17:26:53 GMT -5
* Diebold, Choicepoint Partner to Offer Innovative Voting
Technology
Alpharetta, GA - Diebold Election Systems and Choicepoint,
Inc., today announced a joint venture that could
revolutionize the voting market. The concept is simple:
combine Diebold's demonstrated expertise in voting systems
with Choicepoint's superior data-mining techniques to
produce PredictaVote(TM) - the first 100 percent voter-free,
predictive voting system.
"The beauty of this approach is that it is self-correcting,"
explained Choicepoint CEO Derrick Sithe. "If someone
wants to increase the chances that his or her vote will
be counted correctly, the voter simply needs to open
up more of his or her life to our data-collection methods. <br>Apply for more credit cards. Register for more grocery
loyalty cards. Purchase more subscriptions. Fill out
more warranty cards. Compare that to today's paperless
e-voting machines, where voters have no way to determine
whether votes are accurately counted. There's really no
comparison."
Even more impressive than its accuracy is its cost-
effectiveness, say company spokespersons. PredictaVote
caps a decade of innovation and strategic thinking at
Diebold, explained Diebold President and CEO Ollie O'Sell. <br>"Elections have historically been ridiculously expensive
undertakings. Who's to blame? Quite simply: the
voter. Accounting for everything from allowing employees
time off to vote to ensuring the accuracy and security of
the machines, elections drain an average of $12 billion
from the American economy every year in the form of
manufacturing costs and lost productivity. With
PredictaVote, all of these problems go away with the
voter."
Company officials conceded that a number of design choices
had yet to be fin alized, but emphasized that all
predictive factors were customizable on a jurisdiction-by-
jurisdiction and demographic-by-demographic basis. <br>Immigrants and the homeless, for example - i.e., those
without extensive credit histories - will be excluded
from final vote tallies or be subject to additional
invasive investigatory procedures, said Choicepoint's
Sithe.
"This approach seems to be working well for us in our
airport screening algorithms, and we see no reason that
it wouldn't work here."
AP article:
<http://www.eff.org/cgi/tiny?urlID=441>
Technology
Alpharetta, GA - Diebold Election Systems and Choicepoint,
Inc., today announced a joint venture that could
revolutionize the voting market. The concept is simple:
combine Diebold's demonstrated expertise in voting systems
with Choicepoint's superior data-mining techniques to
produce PredictaVote(TM) - the first 100 percent voter-free,
predictive voting system.
"The beauty of this approach is that it is self-correcting,"
explained Choicepoint CEO Derrick Sithe. "If someone
wants to increase the chances that his or her vote will
be counted correctly, the voter simply needs to open
up more of his or her life to our data-collection methods. <br>Apply for more credit cards. Register for more grocery
loyalty cards. Purchase more subscriptions. Fill out
more warranty cards. Compare that to today's paperless
e-voting machines, where voters have no way to determine
whether votes are accurately counted. There's really no
comparison."
Even more impressive than its accuracy is its cost-
effectiveness, say company spokespersons. PredictaVote
caps a decade of innovation and strategic thinking at
Diebold, explained Diebold President and CEO Ollie O'Sell. <br>"Elections have historically been ridiculously expensive
undertakings. Who's to blame? Quite simply: the
voter. Accounting for everything from allowing employees
time off to vote to ensuring the accuracy and security of
the machines, elections drain an average of $12 billion
from the American economy every year in the form of
manufacturing costs and lost productivity. With
PredictaVote, all of these problems go away with the
voter."
Company officials conceded that a number of design choices
had yet to be fin alized, but emphasized that all
predictive factors were customizable on a jurisdiction-by-
jurisdiction and demographic-by-demographic basis. <br>Immigrants and the homeless, for example - i.e., those
without extensive credit histories - will be excluded
from final vote tallies or be subject to additional
invasive investigatory procedures, said Choicepoint's
Sithe.
"This approach seems to be working well for us in our
airport screening algorithms, and we see no reason that
it wouldn't work here."
AP article:
<http://www.eff.org/cgi/tiny?urlID=441>