Ohio's Ken Blackwell owned shares of Diebold, wrangled to purchased machines

Ohio's Secretary of State became known as 2004's Katherine Harris for his efforts to suppress Democratic votes in the state during the election. In addition to his aborted attempt to use an antiquated statute that would disqualify all registrations not printed on a certain weight of paper, he was a fierce proponent of Diebold voting machines with a history of being easily hacked and providing no verifiable record of ballots. As predicted, a number of problems with the machines were reported, and most-- if not all-- of them favored Republican candidates.

Oh, and Blackwell owned stock in Diebold. He's adopted the Frist defense, after the senator who made lucrative trades in his family business while pushing legislation that directly affected the company and subsequently denied he had any knowledge of owning the stock. Twice. Then admitted he actually did know about it. Blackwell won't be getting to that last stage anytime soon.

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell revealed yesterday that he owned stock in Diebold, a voting-machine manufacturer, at the same time his office negotiated a deal that critics have said was an attempt to steer business to the company.

But Blackwell said his investments were handled by a financial manager without his advice or review, and after he discovered during the past weekend that he owned stock in Diebold Inc., he sold his shares yesterday at a loss.

Controversy has swirled around Ohio-based Diebold and its voting machines since its former chairman pledged to deliver victory for President Bush in Ohio in 2004 and Blackwell’s office changed directions last year about which voting devices could be used. Blackwell also was Bush’s Ohio co-chairman.

Thanks to OD1 for the story.