April 28, 2006

Texas Secretary of State Threatens to Decertify ES&S

"Wichita Falls' early voters will use pen and paper - not electronic voting machines - to cast ballots in the joint municipal and school district election beginning Monday.

City Clerk Lydia Ozuna said Thursday afternoon early voters would mark their X's on emergency paper ballots because the county's electronic voting machine vendor, Electronic Systems and Software, failed to provide the needed election information.

Ozuna said the problems were because of ES&S overextending its capabilities and customer base in Texas.

"I think they realize they were ... not prepared to deal with that many entities," Ozuna said.

Amanda Brown, ES&S spokeswoman, confirmed paper ballots would be used during early voting but hoped her company could find an "alternative solution" before it ended. Brown said her company was "working really hard to make sure everything was ready for May 13."

ES&S's lack of election readiness prompted a letter from Secretary of State Roger Williams. In the letter, Williams threatened to withhold state money, decertify ES&S as a Texas vendor and find the company in breech of contract if it did not increase its election efforts in Texas, according to Trey Trainor, general counsel for the secretary of state."

The story is here.

This comes on the heels of Oregon's lawsuit against ES&S for breach of contract.

Update: The Indiana Secretary of State has now filed a complaint against ES&S as well.

Posted by Randy Riddle at April 28, 2006 09:13 AM