Diebold's "Special Persons" List‏ - evidence of e-voting conspiracy?

I have been following the election rights movement since the 2000 elections to the point that I began volunteering as an elections monitor in my local area to do my part in ensuring all of us our right to vote. The right to vote unhindered is a paramount value in a democracy and IMO transcends partisan politics (or should!). And BOY is there a lot of fodder for the conspiracy minded with very serious consequences for our county when one starts looking deeply into the topic. Yesterday I received an alert from Bev Harris' (called the mother of election reform by some) group Black Box Voting. BBV is a non-partisan grass roots org. that has been investigating and documenting election irregularities (most often linked to e-voting machines) and has become an important voice in the election reform debate.

On to the meat.....

Apparently, ES & S is taking over a portion of the other main player in e-voting machines, Diebold (specifically their "Premier Election Systems"). For context, after the buy, ES & S will own ~70% of the e-voting market. But here's where it gets really interesting. The contract states in perpetuity (ie forever) that a select group of Diebold employees named below will have very special treatment after the acquisition. ES & S has promised to alert Diebold in writing 30 days in advance if these employee's are terminated and if they leave the company of their own free will for the express purpose of Diebold placing them on retainer. In my understanding, while such an arrangement is not unheard of, the number of employees and the "forever" status of the contract does make it highly unusual.

So what is happening here? Why would Diebold so strongly desire to ensure/buy the continuing loyalty (silence?) of these employees in such a manner? BBV is asking for help in identifying why each person so named may have been singled out by Diebold, and what they may know of past Diebold activities. Some of these people are known to be programmers and to have been closely associated with past electoral controversies.

Excerpted from the alert: "While one might expect to see certain individuals who are intimately tied to intellectual property get golden parachutes and non-compete agreements, this list includes some -- but not all -- of the programmers with intimate knowledge, and also includes some of the PR hacks (Mark Radke), an Internet disinfo person, Rob Pelletier... The special people also include a former state elections director who bailed over to Diebold after helping implement a statewide buy (Cathy Rogers, of Georgia)."

"The Diebold "special persons" list:
Larry Calvert - Robert Chen - Ken Clark - John Davenport- Randy Deabenderfer -Lois Doneson -Alex Guedea- Jessica Hiner - Talbot Iredale - Troy Lanier - Steve Moreland - Tim Murawaski - Robert Pelletier - Ian Piper- Mark Radke - Kathy Rogers - Ross Underwood - Archie Williams "

Whattya got, ATS?

This information provided after permission from BBV. Some additional info on Bev and her org: en.wikipedia.org...
And an alternative source and analysis of the ES & S merger: www.voteraction.org...

Right or left, stealing elections is WRONG.