Secretary's office says vendor running out of time

Associated Press    03 May 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A voting machine maker that sued the state over a decision by its chief elections official that allows counties to buy touch-screen electronic machines only from a rival company is running out of time to present its system to state officials, a lobbyist for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell said Tuesday.

Election Systems & Software Inc. filed its lawsuit Monday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. It seeks to prevent Blackwell from enforcing a directive that allows county boards of elections to buy touch-screen electronic machines made by Diebold Election Systems or optical scan machines.

A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday before Judge Dale Crawford.

Blackwell's directive last month came after secret negotiations between his office and Diebold and eliminated the opportunity for counties to choose from more than one touch-screen vendor, ES&S said Monday.

Blackwell has set a May 13 deadline for voting machine system plans to be submitted to his office. ES&S President and Chief Executive Aldo Tesi said his company has developed a touch-screen system that would meet certification standards, but the company needs more time to prepare them.

Dana Walch, Blackwell's legislative director, said ES&S had a fair shot at winning certification.

"All the vendors who had exactly the same time frame, and had the same information communicated to them in same way, had the time to get their national and state certifications completed," Walch said Tuesday. "We've asked for a timeline from them, when they felt they could get the certifications completed. They haven't given them to us."

ES&S said in a statement Tuesday that the state's requirements for a paper trail have been changing and were not made final until late March and they did not go into effect until April 28.

"The deadlines established by the secretary of state's office in its latest directives are arbitrary and do not reflect the needs established by state and federal requirements under HAVA (Help America Vote Act)," ES&S said.

Blackwell has said the Diebold machines are the only electronic machines to meet federal and state standards under the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002. Both North Canton-based Diebold and Omaha, Neb.-based ES&S manufacture optical-scan machines that meet both state and federal standards and are available to the county boards.

The state has about $115 million in federal money available for upgrading the machines in all 88 counties.

The lawsuit is the second filed over Blackwell rulings involving voting machines. In February, Austin, Texas-based Hart Intercivic Inc. said Blackwell's actions cost the company the chance to provide machines to at least six Ohio counties Hart expected to win as customers.