Election contractor has one more chance
By JASON MICHAEL WHITE
Daily Journal staff writer
jwhite@thejournalnet.com

April 6, 2004

Johnson County voters won’t get to use new touchscreen machines in May’s primary after all if an election company doesn’t resubmit a $10 million bond to the state by Wednesday.

Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software was scolded in March for allowing four Indiana counties to use new touchscreen voting software that had not been certified in last November’s election. Election Systems & Software was ordered to post a bond in case anything went wrong in May’s election.

However, the bond that the company submitted covered only problems that would arise because of defects, which wasn’t good enough for state election officials, attorney Dale Simmons of the Indiana Election Division said. Officials want the bond to cover all possible damages for using uncertified software, such as legal fees if the state or county is sued.

“We’re stepping out on a limb here for them,” Simmons said. “They need to cover any and all loss.”

Johnson County Clerk Jill Jackson said she would demand 106 optical-scan machines from Election Systems & Software (to use in place of the touchscreen machines) for May’s primary election if issues with the bond aren’t resolved on time.

Company spokeswoman Becky Vollmer said the bond should be issued in time to meet the deadline.

The Indiana Election Commission on Friday sent a letter to the company, spelling out what language and wording to use in its revised bond. Simmons and the commission president will review the bond and decide whether to approve it.

Election Systems & Software is expected to have a revised bond to the state today, Simmons said. If the company doesn’t submit a revised bond, or the bond isn’t approved, electronic touchscreen voting systems sold last year to Johnson, Henry, Wayne and Vanderburgh counties could not be used in May’s primary election.

Voters won’t be able to use the county’s old punch-card voting machines because of federal money the county accepted to upgrade its voting systems, Jackson said. The county already used that federal money to upgrade to the electronic voting machines, so it can’t regress back to the punch-card system.

Jackson said the county will find another vendor if any problems arise in the election because of Election Systems & Software.

“We would be done with them,” she said.

Problems with the $10 million bond are the latest in a string of instances frustrating county election officials because of the company.

Election Systems & Software in March was criticized by the Indiana Election Commission for distributing voting equipment with preinstalled software not yet certified to current state and federal standards.

Criticism came after the commission had to issue subpoenas to bring company officials to March’s state election meeting.

Last month, Election Systems & Software also terminated its local project manager, Doug Orange, who had successfully overseen the November election and had a solid working knowledge of the county and its needs.

The county hired Orange as an independent consultant.