Diebold’s voting systems, once touted as a way to avoid a repeat of the 2000 Florida election debacle, have come under fire from critics who question their vulnerability to tampering, and are again in the spotlight ahead of Tuesday’s closely watched U.S. mid-term elections. The 2004 elections wreaked havoc on Diebold’s reputation, when then-Chief Executive Walden O’Dell openly raised money for President Bush and said in a fund-raising letter that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president.” O’Dell resigned in 2005, but critics have continued to slam the machines’ security against tampering. In September, computer scientists at Princeton University published a paper explaining how the computers could be modified to steal vote data or change votes, and a recent HBO documentary raised questions about the Canton, Ohio-based company’s systems. Diebold said the HBO report was riddled with factual errors, and generally says its voting systems are safe, accurate and secure when properly administered.