State resolves lawsuit with maker of voting machines

Associated Press    05 August 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A voting machine maker which sued the state claiming its certification deadlines were unfair has reached an agreement with Ohio's chief elections official.

Election Systems & Software Inc. filed its lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in May alleging Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell set arbitrary deadlines for counties to choose voting systems.

Blackwell offered ES&S a new contract this week and the Omaha, Neb.-based firm signed it on Thursday. His office is expected to issue an order soon that will give the voting machine maker more time to sell its touch-screen system to Ohio counties.

"We would hope that the litigation would be put behind us and we could go on to the work of deploying voting systems," said Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo.

ES&S was joined by 32 counties in its lawsuit and their elections boards have until Sept. 15 to a new voting system. The federal Help America Vote Act requires that new systems be in place for the first federal elections of 2006.

"Now we really are able to provide to counties ... a real choice in the ion of voting machines," said Jill Friedman-Wilson, a spokeswoman for ES&S.

Blackwell issued a directive in April saying county boards of elections could buy touch-screen electronic machines made by Diebold Election Systems or optical scan machines.

Blackwell has said the Diebold machines are the only electronic machines to meet federal and state standards under the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

ES&S said it's seeking certification for its touch-screen system.

Ohio's 56 other counties have ed vendors.