Vendors off-limits to staff
State in the market for voting machines
Saturday, August 21, 2004
By Ed Anderson New Orleans Times-Picayune
Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE Secretary of State Fox McKeithen has warned employees of his office to avoid direct contact with election machine vendors who may want to sell the state new voting equipment or face disciplinary action.

The state has $30 million to $50 million in federal money to spend on election machines in the near future. In an Aug. 5 memo released Friday, First Assistant Secretary of State Reneé Free said McKeithen's order is designed to minimize wrongdoing by the agency's staff and representatives of voting machines companies who may want to lobby employees to gain an inside track.

Due to the impending purchase of new voting machines, Free said, the actions of employees of the Department of State may come under careful scrutiny. Therefore, effective immediately, and until further notice, no department employee may socialize in any manner i.e., breakfast, lunch, dinner, parties, etc. or have any direct contact with any employee, owner or associate of any voting machine company (or) vendor.

Free said a violation could result in a range of punishments, from a reprimand to dismissal. Free said only McKeithen can approve a deviation from this policy.

Jerry Fowler, former commissioner of the Department of Elections and Registration, is now serving time in a federal prison for taking kickbacks and other favors from machine vendors who did business with the state. That office was abolished and merged with McKeithen's in January.

Because of the history of elections, we wanted this to be above-board, Free said. We don't want to have even the appearance of impropriety.