Diebold announced yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has begun an informal inquiry into how the company recognizes revenue. This is the second time this year that Diebold revised its revenue downward. The most recent was in March, when Diebold revised its earnings downward by $7 million and its income report downward by 4.2 million – due to "election system warranties signed in 2005, but which won't start generating income until 2007."

"The company was recently informed that the staff of the SEC has begun an informal inquiry relating to the company's revenue recognition policy," the filing read. "The SEC indicated in its letter to the company that the inquiry should not be construed as an indication by the SEC that there has been any violation of the federal securities laws. The company is cooperating with the SEC in connection with the inquiry. The company cannot predict the length, scope or results of the informal inquiry, or the impact, if any."

"Follow the money," as they say...ever wonder why you can get a receipt out of every ATM in the country, but can't get a receipt verifying who you voted for?

Ask Diebold. The League of Women Voters did.

"Meg Smothers of the League of Women Voters recently said that Georgia has 28,000 voting machines, and it would cost $15 million to retrofit them with printers to produce receipts. That comes to $535 per machine. Yet these machines already have printers. They produce a paper receipt at the end of the day showing the vote tallies. The printers are the kind used in cash registers, and they have large rolls of paper that would easily last through the 12 hours the polls remain open. It takes people about a minute to cast a ballot, so one machine would need to print at most 720 receipts per day. The printer and paper are located on the right side of the machine, under a locked metal cover. It would be a simple matter to fabricate a new metal equipment cover with an outlet above the printer, that would print a receipt for the voter. Based on the retail cost of similar metal computer equipment cases available in any computer store, this should cost approximately $30 per machine, not $500. The programming change would be trivial."

So why doesn't Diebold do that?

Perhaps Diebold's CEO Walden “Wally” O’Dell, one of George W. Bush’s major donors would know.