Voting machine acquisition process questioned

By JOHN LaPLANTE    The Baton Rouge Advocate    12 May 2005

The head of a civic group Wednesday questioned the process of picking new voting machines for Louisiana elections.

State officials responded that the procedure is kosher, if somewhat confidential.

Jean Armstrong, president of the League of Women Voters of Louisiana, "is just grand-standing," First Assistant Secretary of State Al Ater said after a hearing before the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee.

But Armstrong, who requested the hearing, said she got interested because of rumors that Ater's office is "steering" a potential $47 million contract for thousands of voting machines to a favored supplier.

Most worrisome, she said, is a decision by Ater's agency to let bidders offer to sell the state 9,000 so-called "full-face" voting machines or 17,500 touch-screen machines. That gives an edge to a firm called Sequoia, the only supplier offering the full-face machine, she said.

Armstrong said she asked lawmakers to air the issue to ensure a clean process that picks the best voting machines and avoids a scandal that could hurt the state's image and waste money.

Ater responded that full-face machines which show an entire ballot at once can handle more voters in the same time as touch-screen machines which require voters to scroll up and down to see all the candidates or issues on a ballot. So the state would need fewer machines, he said.

Ater said any bidder can offer either machine, so he is not steering the work to anyone.

He suggested that Armstrong's group, which promotes voter participation in elections, has a conflict of interest on the issue because one of its board members works for a potential bidder.

Members of the Senate committee took no sides in the dispute but offered to meet again, if necessary, to discuss it.

At issue is $47 million the federal government is giving the state to replace 5,000 voting machines that don't meet federal standards. The standards are part of a law adopted by Congress to avoid a repeat of the kind of balloting problems that plagued the 2000 presidential election.

The Secretary of State's Office thinks the money might be enough to replace all the state's voting machines.

Ater said the office has certified that seven firms can provide voting machines that meet all state and federal specifications. The office is now asking them to bid on what they would charge the state for their product.

That process is somewhat secret because the members of a board put together to review the offers and pick the best bidder are not identified and work confidentially. That is to prevent anyone from lobbying or pressuring members of the board to pick a certain supplier, Ater said. He said such secrecy is common and even required by state law for such contracts.

Armstrong, among her other objections, questioned why only state professionals such as computer experts and election officials are on the board that will pick the winning supplier.

She said many other states put "stakeholders," such as members of the NAACP or the League of Women Voters, on such boards.

Ater again said he is following usual procedures.

He also noted that a member of the League of Women Voters' governing board, former East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar of Voters Nat Bankston, is a lobbyist for another company seeking the voting machine contract.

"Can you imagine the scrutiny we'd have if we had a League of Women Voters member on the ion board when one of their board members represents one of the vendors?" Ater told the Senate panel.

Bankston said later that he lobbies for the Hart voting machine company.

Armstrong said Bankston was elected to the board last month, after her group got involved in the issue, and that he will not speak for the League on voting-machine issues.