5 election machine firms cast new bids with state
Contract could be worth $47 million
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
By Ed Anderson   The Times-Picayune

BATON ROUGE Five election machine manufacturing companies submitted new proposals to state officials Tuesday that could land one of them a $47 million contract for about 5,000 voting machines.

The same five firms submitted proposals a month ago, but those proposals were rejected because they weren't responsive to the details of the proposal, state Commissioner of Elections Angie LaPlace said. 
 LaPlace said she had not studied the proposals submitted Tuesday at length, but at first glance, the revised proposals "seem to be more responsive to what we asked for."

The five companies that bid on the project a month ago and submitted new proposals Tuesday were Accupoll, Advanced Voting Systems, Diebold Election Systems, Elections Systems and Software, and Sequoia Voting System.

LaPlace said the state asked the companies to submit proposals on two options:

New voting machines in 50 parishes, including 4,634 "full-face" voting machines, or those that show an entire ballot at one time, or 8,442 "touch-screen" machines that display one computer page of a ballot at a time.

New voting machines for all 64 parishes, including 9,672 "full-face" machines or 17,578 "touch-screen" machines.

LaPlace said the request also requires the machines to be outfitted with features for voters with disabilities.

She refused to discuss terms of the proposals and the cost of the bids. "They cover a wide range of prices," she said.

State Purchasing Director Denise Lea said her office hoped to have a review of the bids wrapped up in two days. Lea said after her group finishes, it will make a recommendation to LaPlace on the "administrative issues" and whether all the companies met the terms of the state's request for proposals.

LaPlace said a special nine-member committee comprising officials in the information technology side of the secretary of state's office, the attorney general's office, the elections office, and representatives of the parish registrars of voters and clerks of courts associations will evaluate the proposals.

The committee will award a maximum 50 points for the amount the companies said they will charge the state and 50 points for "technical issues" such as how their products work, the number of company employees who can train state elections officials on the use of new machines and whether the companies or their owners have run afoul of the law.

LaPlace said she would like the nine-member panel to have a recommendation to Secretary of State Al Ater by the end of next week, so he can start negotiating with one or more companies by early September.