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Re: ES&S in your home state
Elections Board seeks refund for faulty touch-screen system
Seeks talks with maker of failed voting system
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Joe Guillen
Plain Dealer Reporter
Cuyahoga County wants to recoup some of the $21 million spent on its two-year-old touch-screen voting system that failed repeatedly during elections.
The Board of Elections announced Tuesday that its lawyers will start discussions with equipment manufacturer Premier Election Solutions to recover the money.
"We feel $21 million of the taxpayers' money was spent on a voting system that clearly hasn't performed as it was intended to," said Jeff Hastings, chairman of the four-member board.
"It's no secret we've got to deal with this issue. We're dealing with it now," board member Sandy McNair said.
A spokesman for the Allen, Texas-based company said it is open to discussions.
"We have fulfilled the provisions of the contract we entered into," said Chris Riggall of Premier Election Solutions. "We have made every effort to provide to Cuyahoga County what we promised to provide them."
The idea of suing Premier - the new name of Diebold Inc.'s elections division - has been raised in the past, most recently after the Nov. 6 election, when two software crashes delayed results.
But Tuesday's announcement represented the board's first unified strategy against Premier since Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner ordered the county last month to dump its touch-screen system.
Brunner said she had no faith the touch-screen machines could handle the high turnout expected in Cuyahoga County for the Nov. 4 presidential election.
Brunner's order followed a 2-2 tie vote among the board members on whether to switch voting systems.
Her decision sent board members on a hectic pace to install a new paper-ballot voting system before the March 4 presidential primary.
Voters will fill out paper ballots at polling places and the ballots then will be taken to the Board of Elections' warehouse on East 40th Street to be counted by optical scanners.
Brunner wants all of Ohio to adopt an optical scan system, which would cost the state about $31 million. She will meet next week with Gov. Ted Strickland and legislative leaders to discuss paying for the system.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and election activists urged Brunner and the county to keep the touch screens because they automatically notify voters if they incorrectly fill out a ballot.
Board members spiked a plan Tuesday to set up ballot scanners in 60 of the county's 583 polling locations so a limited number of voters could double-check their ballot for errors.
They said it would be a burden to elections workers already overwhelmed with switching to a new system before March.
On 1/11/08, Margit Johansson <margitjo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dave,
Which CO counties use ES&S? I wonder if their clerks would find this article edifying.
Margit
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Election vendor accused of deceptive practice
By Joy Swearingen
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 4:30 PM CST
Hancock County Clerk Kerry Asbridge is requesting the U.S. Department of Justice investigate Election Systems and Software Company of Omaha, Neb., Asbridge said. "Election Systems and Software has consistently engaged in deceptive business practices concerning Hancock County, Illinois. It is time for it to stop.
"Technology is supposed to cut costs and save time. Our state and federal governments have been complacent while companies like Election Systems and Software have used the technology mandates to increase county costs four fold and multiply the time required to do election tasks."
Election Systems and Software manufactures the M-100 optical scan voting machine, and the Auto Mark handicapped voting machine. The company provides ongoing computer software support and programming services.
Asbridge gives three specific examples where taxpayers are being abused.
"First, the costs of ballots and software in 2002 were approximately $11,500 in the 2002 Primary election. I expect those costs to exceed $50,00 for the 2008 Primary election.
"Second, my staff has electronically submitted data according to Election Systems and Software standards three times for this election. Each time, the company has told us they changed the requirements retroactively without informing the customer. They offered to accept our submitted data for an additional fee. This also causes delays.
"Third, the Auto Mark voting machines were a federal mandate. It seems peculiar the purchase price of $5,000 each was identical to the full grant. County taxpayers bear all ongoing costs of storage, trans-portation, maintenance and computer programming."
Asbridge said there are 266 ballot styles for the Feb. 5 election. Voters may experience delays in absentee voting availability. Election Systems and Software had not started printing ballots as of Tuesday.
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