Bribery Of A North Carolina Election Director
Bribery Of A North Carolina Election Director Abstracted from information provided by North Carolina Coalition For Verifiable Voting
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• Conviction and prison time for election director — Bill Culp pled guilty to accepting bribes from Microvote salesman Ed O'Day. Culp retired in February 1998 after 28 years as election director for Mecklenburg County.
• Ed O'Day — Salesman still selling voting machines today and, as of 2004, was Vice President of United American Election Supply Company after pleading guilty to bribery.
• Insufficient laws — North Carolina laws do not prohibit Ed O'Day from selling voting machines to the counties in North Carolina, just from selling directly to the State of North Carolina for a 10 year period.
• Defective machines — The Microvote DREs sold to Mecklenburg County were already known to be defective and were the source of a lawsuit between Microvote and the State of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania refused to buy the machines, or at least not all that Microvote tried to sell them, and Microvote sued. Microvote lost the suit. The machines malfunctioned after North Carolina bought them (some were sold to Indiana too). But since North Carolina Election Director Bill Culp was taking bribes, he couldn't say much.
After retiring in February after 28 years, former Mecklenburg County Elections Supervisor Bill Culp was indicted by a federal grand jury July 7, 1998, on charges that he accepted more than $134,000 in kickbacks and bribes from a voting machine repairman and a salesman who won millions in county contracts. The indictment followed a six-month FBI investigation. (Charlotte Business Journal)
The indictments came after FBI agents subpoenaed records involving the elections office, Culp, and vendors who sold the county voting machines and supplies. The FBI requested all records of purchases, contracts, and bids for the past five years as part of a grand jury inquiry. Culp's personnel files, travel and business records were also subpoenaed. These records include dealings with MicroVote Corp. and its former agent Ed O'Day, who sold the county nearly $6 million in voting machines since 1994. MicroVote officials say they're cooperating with the FBI.
The machines Ed O'Day sold to Culp were defective from the beginning, and were actually machines that the State of Pennsylvania had tried and refused to buy after numerous serious problems with the machines. Microvote filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, over these machines, Microvote v. Montgomery County, 942 F.Supp. 1046 (1996), 124 F.3d 187 (3d Cir. 1997), which they lost. So the history of these machines is well documented.
The machines were defective, but Ed O'Day couldn't say much, could he? Publicly enthusiastic, Culp privately complained about the same defects that led to the chaos in Pennsylvania. "The obvious weakness in the scrolling mechanism concerns us," he wrote to the company on May 13, 1996
O'Day was president of United American Election Supply Co. and also an independent sales representative for MicroVote of Indianapolis.
Gene Barnes, who serviced the county's voting machines for more than 30 years, raised his prices so Culp could get a kickback of $25 per machine repaired.
O'Day and Barnes later admitted that they gave Mecklenburg County Election Director Bill Culp more than $134,000 in bribes and kickbacks since 1990 as rewards for county business. Ed O'Day, 63, of Columbia, South Carolina, and Gene Barnes, 64, of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, pled guilty after being charged.
Culp pled guilty to accepting 122 bribes from O'Day and Barnes and to three counts of mail fraud stemming from his operation of the Mecklenburg Elections Tabulation Service, which provided news organizations with unofficial election night results. He double-billed the county and news outlets, pocketing $21,131 between December 1994, and January 1998.
That should be of great concern to voting activists. Wouldn't a clean criminal background be important for executives that influence state election officials?
United American Election Supply Company
Blythewood, South Carolina 29016 U.S.A.
Email: ssoday@worldnet.att.net
Internet : www.uapollmaster.com
Sales Contact: Ed O'Day, Vice President
Technical Contact: Ed O'Day, Vice President
Description: United American Election Supply Company, supplies products to users of all types of voting systems including voting booths for paper punch card and DRE voting systems. We market the exclusive Pollmaster I and II voting booths, ABS ballot boxes, transfer cases, and supply boxes. We also sell all punch card ballots and supplies. Election Experience: 30 years experience in election support
In addition, in 2004 Ed O'Day was a Vice President of The National Association of Government Suppliers.
And in May 2004 Ed O'Day furnished a hospitality suite for the 19 th Georgia Election Officials Association May 16-19, 2004, held at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Did Georgia Election Officials know that they are rubbing elbows with a convicted briber?
The North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting is a grassroots organization fighting for clean and verified elections. Contact Joyce McCloy, Coordinator, North Carolina Coalition for Verifiable Voting — phone (336) 794-1240 — Email: ncverifiablevoting@yahoo.com Website: www.ncvoter.net. Join our group: groups.yahoo.com/group/ncverifiablevoting.
| EJF Home | Where To Find Help | Join the EJF | Comments? | Get EJF newsletter |
| Vote Fraud and Election Issues Book | Table of Contents | Site Map | Index |
| Chapter 4 — Trust Our Election Officials? |
| Next — Pinellas County, Florida, finds Supervisor of Elections worked for voting machine manufacturer |
| Back — Louisiana Commissioner Of Elections Convicted Of Accepting Kickbacks From E-Vote Vendors |