Election Systems & Software

Election Systems & Software (ES&S) is an American company that provides voting services.

ES&S is a subsidiary of McCarthy Group, LLC, which is jointly held by the holding firm and the Omaha World-Herald Company, the publisher of Nebraska's largest newspaper. As of 2007 it was the largest manufacturer of voting machines in the United States, claiming customers in 1,700 localities. As of 2007 it had approximately 350 employees; 2005 revenues were $117 million.^[1] In December 2011, the Election Assistance Commission issued a formal notice of investigation into the DS200 Precinct Count Optical Scanner because of three operational anomalies.^[2]

History

Election Systems & Software was founded in 1979^[1] as American Information Systems Inc. (AIS), it merged with Business Records Corp. the following year and changed its name to ES&S. It was one of the top four providers of voting equipment used in the November 2004 election; the other three were Diebold Election Systems (now Premier Election Solutions), Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic.^[3]

2006 elections

After the November 2006 elections, Indiana launched an inquiry into poor service by the company, settling when ESS agreed to pay $750,000. West Virginia filed a formal complaint against the company with federal officials. Arkansas put together a panel to investigate. The company denied any major trouble with its machines, attributing problems to errors made by poll workers.^[1]

Withdrawal of InkaVote

On 3 August 2007, California Secretary of state Debra Bowen withdrew approval of the ES&S InkaVote Plus optical scan voting system after a "top-to-bottom review" of the voting machines certified for use in California in March 2007.^[4]

Reported problems during the 2008 election

Early voters in the 2008 Presidential election reported instances of malfunctioning machines.^[3] People complained that they voted for one candidate, only to have their selection switch to another.^[5] The clerk of Oakland County, Michigan reported inconsistent results with some machines during testing in October.^[6]

Acquisition of Premier Election Solutions

ES&S acquired Premier Election Solutions on 3 September 2009.^[3][7] The US Department of Justice and 14 individual states have launched investigations into the acquisitions on antitrust grounds.^[8] The company then sold it to Dominion Voting Systems.

Reported problems during the 2010 election

On April 14, 2010, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that “About 10 percent of Cuyahoga County’s voting machines … [had] failed a pre-election test.”^[9] After 20 months of investigating the DS200 Precinct Count Optical Scanner in the EAC-certified Unity 3.2.0.0 voting system, on December 22, 2011 the Election Assistance Commission recommended decertification of the ES&S voting machine if it cannot be fixed. From the findings:^[10]

• “The DS200 accepts a voted ballot but does not record the ballot on its internal counter. In addition the marks of the second ballot are not recorded.”
• “When a 17” ballot was inserted at an angle, the DS200 did not consistently count the mark properly. The mark registered either as a different selection than intended or did not register at all.”
• The system randomly freezes and does not record the freeze in its log files. There are other events not logged, such as touch screen calibration.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Anita Kumar, "Top vote-machine maker also tops complaint list: Vendor discounts woes, blames poll workers", St. Petersburg Times, May 27, 2005
2. ^ "EAC Issues Formal Investigation Report on DS200 Precinct Count Optical Scanner". Election Assistance Commission. 2011-12-22. Retrieved 2012-01-03.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Lundin, Leigh (2008-08-17). "Dangerous Ideas". Voting Fiasco, Part 279.236(a). Criminal Brief. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
4. ^ "Rescission and Withdrawal of Approval of the Election Systems and Software InkaVote Plus Precinct Ballot Counting System, Version 2.1, as Approved on April 21, 2006". California Secretary of State. 2007-08-03. Archived from the original on 2007-10-31. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
5. ^ "Early Voting Sees Reports of Voter Intimidation, Machine Malfunctions". Democracy Now!. 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
6. ^ "Letter from Ruth Johnson to Election Assistance Commission". Wired.com. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
7. ^ "ES&S buys competitor". Omaha.com. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
8. ^ Ben Klayman (2009-12-19). "U.S. opens probe of Diebold unit sale -report". Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
9. ^ "10 percent of Cuyahoga County's voting machines fail pre-election tests". Cleveland Plain Dealer. 2010-04-14. Retrieved 2012-01-03.
10. ^ "Election System Alert: ES&S Machines". The Moderate Voice. 2012-01-03. Retrieved 2012-01-03.