Diebold chosen for Summit

Ohio secretary of state picks electronic-voting gear vendor for county

By Lisa A. Abraham and Erika D. Smith

Beacon Journal staff writers

Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has told the Summit County Board of Elections to buy its electronic voting machines from Diebold Inc.

The Green-based company already had been chosen by more than 40 Ohio counties, as the state converts from punch cards and lever pulls to electronic voting.

Blackwell had asked counties to choose a vendor for the machines by Jan. 15, but Summit County failed to meet that deadline.

Instead, the Board of Elections asked Blackwell to decide which machines the county should buy because it could not. Summit County asked Blackwell to choose between Diebold and Election Systems & Software.

In a memo dated Monday, Blackwell stated: ``It was my desire from the beginning of this process for the decision on voting equipment to be left to the county's discretion. Due to a lack of decision on this matter though, and the board's own admission in their correspondence that they ranked Diebold as their favored vendor, I am ing the Diebold Election Systems DRE for use in Summit County.''

He also told board members he is ``requiring'' the board to ratify his ion of Diebold at its next meeting.

Board of Elections member Alex Arshinkoff, a Republican, said Tuesday that he had not seen Blackwell's directive. ``I will have to review it,'' Arshinkoff said. ``We asked the secretary of state to make a decision, and he did. I'm sure we'll do everything we can to implement his decision.''

Board member Russ Pry, a Democrat, said he had no problem with either of the two machines to which board staff had narrowed their choice.

Pry said the board sent the matter to Blackwell after Republican members refused to choose because they did not feel comfortable with the security of the machines.

Pry said he did not care which of the two machines is chosen because both are compatible with the board's computer software. ``I had no problem with a computer system as a member of the Board of Elections to make sure we have fair elections,'' he said.

Even without Summit County, Green-based Diebold had landed more contracts with Ohio counties than any other electronic voting machine company.

Summit was one of 71 counties ordered to pick a voting machine supplier by Jan. 15. Seventeen other counties weren't required to choose by that date because they already have electronic or optical-scan machines, although those also will be replaced.

In addition to Diebold, Election Systems & Software and Hart InterCivic will supply some Ohio counties.

Ohio had hoped to start using the electronic voting machines before Aug. 3 special elections, but rising skepticism in the legislature about the machines' security has thrown that into question.

Diebold, which could not be reached for comment late Tuesday, insists its machines are secure and accurate.

Still, legislators are considering whether to require all electronic voting machines to spit out a paper record. The State Controlling Board has put off a $133 million spending request to buy the machines until the issue is resolved.

Hearings on the subject are being held in Columbus this week and next week.