State (CA) Threatens To Pull Plug On Vote Machine Firm - SF Chronicle

CALIFORNIA - State threatens to pull plug on vote machine firm

Company ordered to correct glitches or lose certification

John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer

Saturday, December 24, 2005

<snip>

A voting machine company whose equipment handles elections in San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, Solano and seven other California counties could be out of business in the state if it doesn't fix software problems that surfaced in November's election, a state official has warned.

"The California secretary of state is deeply concerned about problems experienced by counties utilizing (Election Systems and Software) voting equipment and software,'' Bradley Clark, assistant secretary of state for elections, wrote in a Nov. 17 letter to the Omaha, Neb., company that was obtained by the Associated Press.

In what Clark called "an alarming error," a videotaped test on an iVotronic touch-screen terminal in Merced County showed a woman choosing one candidate on the screen while the vote was awarded to a different candidate.

While only Merced County uses the iVotronic system, San Francisco and other counties use optical scan equipment made by Election Systems and Software. Clark threatened to decertify all of the company's machines if action wasn't taken immediately.

<snip>

Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/12/24/BAG8TGCSLD1.DTL

AND...

Diebold decision leaves one company to provide compliant voting machines - December 24,2005

BY Sue Book
Sun Journal Staff

<snip>

Craven County Board of Elections' choice for new voting equipment is now the only game in town for North Carolina's 100 counties.

Election Systems and Software, regionally based in New Bern, is the only voting equipment manufacturer left that is certified to sell its machines in the state. Diebold Election Systems' decided earlier this week not to sell in the state.

"Now we're charged with the task of providing election systems in North Carolina," said Owen Andrews of Printelect, ES&S's New Bern-based representative for North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

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Link: http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=25393&Section=Local

Ya think we can knock ALL these suckers out before next November? Wouldn't THAT be nice?

:bounce::kick::bounce:

:bounce:

:hi:

:silly:

:kick:

This doesn't sound like great news.