State s voting machine vendor

JIM DAVENPORT

Associated Press

 

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The State Election Commission will use an Omaha, Nebraska, company for new voting machines in 14 counties.

State Election Commission Director Marci Andino says the commission decided Monday to award the contract, worth up to $37 million, to Election Systems and Software.

That's the same company that won the work in April for $32.5 million. But the company's proposal was challenged and thrown out last month because it did not commit to a fixed price on all of the work.

Questions arose about Elections Systems' winning proposals because the company had jointly bid on work in Georgia with Unisys, a company that had employed Andino.

Andino was "dead set and head strong, making sure the company she used to work with got the bid," said Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia. Knotts had previously asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate how the previous proposals were handled, including Andino's ties.

"It was absolutely not a wired deal," Andino said. "A decision was made by not one, but two, independent evaluation committees. I absolutely had no influence in the decision," Andino said. "I had no preference going into this," she said.

Two other companies submitted proposals: Palmetto Unilect of Columbia and Diebold Election Systems of McKinney, Texas,

Knotts wanted the work to go to Palmetto Unilect because it was based in Columbia.

Palmetto Unilect had the lowest bid, but the company did not secure its bid with a bond, Andino said. That meant Palmetto Unilect's proposal was not considered.

Andino said Diebold Election Systems of McKinney, Texas, was the other bidding company and submitted the highest price for the work.

The replacement work will involve replacing punch card systems in 11 counties - Aiken, Anderson, Cherokee, Florence, Greenville, Kershaw, Lexington, Oconee, Sumter, Spartanburg and York - and three that use optical scan systems - Abbeville, Calhoun and Union.

Andino says the state had to pick a vendor quickly so that counties can begin receiving their equipment by mid-August and complete training in time for the November elections. If the state doesn't have the machines in place by November, it risks losing $2.2 million the federal government has offered to replace old equipment.

The machines will provide will allow blind or vision-impaired voters to cast ballots for the first time without a helper in the voting booth with them.

The devices also give voters a chance to review all of their ballot choices and make changes before finalizing their vote.