Steve is a whistleblower; he is alleged to have seen and then exposed legal documents showing that Diebold Election Systems, Inc., the country's leading manufacturer of electronic voting machines and voting machine software, was using illegal, uncertified software in their California voting machines. He has been charged with 3 felonies.

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Hello to the family and friends of Steve Heller. My name is Peter Soby, Jr. I am a very close friend of Steve's. I am writing on his behalf, with the advice and consent of his lawyer, because Steve is in serious legal trouble and he needs our help - not $$ help, but help by writing a letter, making a phone call, sending a fax or an email, things just about anyone can do.

Steve is a whistleblower; he is alleged to have seen and then exposed legal documents showing that Diebold Election Systems, Inc., the country's leading manufacturer of electronic voting machines and voting machine software, was using illegal, uncertified software in their California voting machines. He has been charged with 3 felonies, which is an outrageous abuse of the law and of power. Details on what is happening to Steve and how to help are in the following links. Please feel free to forward this email to anyone and everyone. Read on...

First, here is a link to a story in the Feb. 22 edition of the Los Angeles Times. If for some reason you cannot open the link, let me know and I will email you the text of the article.

Man Pleads Not Guilty in Voting Device Case
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-diebold22feb22,1,7096292.story

Now, here are more details on this situation, with corroborating links, from a post I wrote for Arianna Huffington's blog. This is the link with important information on how to help Steve Heller.

Whistleblower Charged With Three Felonies for Exposing Diebold's Crimes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-soby-jr/whistleblower-charged-wit_b_16411.html

Another way to help Steve is by writing a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times. You can use the same talking points from my post (the link above) in your letter to the editor. Directions on how to send a letter to the editor can be found at this link under http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/ Their snail mail address is Letters to the Editor, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. They want letters to be 150 words or less, with your name, address and daytime phone number.

The next link is to a post from the same blog written by Lyn Davis Lear

Whistleblower Hero is Threatened with Prison for Exposing Diebold
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lyn-lear/whistleblower-hero-is-thr_b_16409.html

I thank you in advance for any help you might be able to give Steve. He is a patriot and a whistleblower and should not be prosecuted. And again, this email can be forwarded to anyone you think might be interested.

Sincerely,
Peter Soby, Jr.

Submitter: Joan Brunwasser

Submitters Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Submitters Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.



Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.


When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.

While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"


Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.