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Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and PR giant Burson-Marsteller [5] are launching "Help Ohio Vote," a state-wide, 18-month, $15.3 million PR and advertising campaign "educating Ohio voters about new [electronic] voting machines." The massive campaign includes focus groups, media tours, ads, direct mail, and an "embedded [6]" media program. Local press noted that Blackwell's media work for the campaign may help his potential gubernatorial run in 2006 [7]. Meanwhile, e-voting machines received mixed marks on Super Tuesday. In San Diego, "touchscreens failed to boot properly [8], causing delays of up to two hours and forcing some voters to other polling places." Computer science professor Avi Rubin [9] concluded: "Some of my concerns were laid to rest and some were made worse [10]" after serving as a Baltimore County election judge.
Links:
[1] http://dev.prwatch.org/users/6/diane-farsetta
[2] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/democracy
[3] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/public-relations
[4] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.prwatch.org%2Fspin%2F2004%2F03%2F2459%2Fwelcome-machines&linkname=Welcome%20to%20the%20Machines
[5] http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Burson-Marsteller
[6] http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Media_control
[7] http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/news/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?o0243_BC_OH--VotingMachines&&news&newsflash-ohio
[8] http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107833044855045393,00.html?mod=politics%5Fprimary%5Fhs
[9] http://avirubin.com/vote/
[10] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24780-2004Mar2.html
[11] http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0304ohio.htm