Diebold in North Carolina

Diebold, the leading supplier of e-voting machines in the U.S. may have just decided to shut itself out of North Carolina, reports Wired News.

Diebold Inc., which makes automated teller machines and security and voting equipment, is worried it could be charged with a felony if officials determine the company failed to make all of its code — some of which is owned by third-party software firms, including Microsoft — available for examination by election officials in case of a voting mishap.

It is required by law to turn over the code. Currently, twenty of N.C.'s 100 counties already use Diebold machines, but the Board of Elections will announce that the suppliers will have to meet the new standards.

The response from evil Diebold?

"We will obviously have no alternative but withdraw from the process," said Doug Hanna, a Raleigh-based lawyer representing Diebold.

David Bear, a Diebold spokesman, said the company was reviewing several options after Monday's ruling. "We're going to do what is necessary to provide what is best for our existing clients" in North Carolina, he said.

Check out that language. no alternative and our existing clients. The alternatives? Have a paper trail. They make ATM machines, they do posess the technology to do so and on a very large scale, scalability should not be a problem for them. They could also hand over the code and make arrangements with their third party coders. And they don't think about the public here, only about their clients. No need to do the public any good, they just want to screw the public over.

North Carolina went to W in 2004 by 400,000 votes. Interestingly, CNN reports that 21% of N.C. voters registered as Independents and 56% of them voted for W.

More Black Box Voting info.