Voting flap funds ahead?
By MICHAEL W. HOSKINS
Johnson County Daily Journal staff writer
Aug. 19, 2005

As a new election season approaches, Johnson County is reviewing problems from the past to see if it can collect money from a voting-equipment supplier.

The county attorney is deciding whether Johnson County should demand money from the company that supplied uncertified voting equipment that could not be used for the November election.

Attorney Jeff Eggers is reviewing the county?s $2.4 million contract with Election Systems & Software, which agreed last week to pay $1.2 million to Marion County for problems similar to what Johnson County experienced last year.

Marion County used optical scan machines during the primary election but ran out of paper ballots for voters.

?We had a lot of the same issues but on a more widespread level,? Johnson County Clerk Jill Jackson said. ?Ours was an even more difficult position because we?d bought touchscreens for all precincts.?

The Nebraska-based company signed a $2.4 million contract for eight years starting in the fall of 2003, which included providing touchscreen voting machines that voters could use.

But soon after, Johnson and other Indiana counties discovered the machines were not certified for use and the company had misled them about errors.

Before the primary election, company technicians told Jackson they were performing maintenance on the machines, when they actually were replacing an unapproved version of software with a certified one.

In an earlier incident, the company used unapproved components in November?s municipal election without telling the board, she said.

The election board considered terminating the contract and suing ES&S for breach of contract, but it decided against the action before the presidential election.

Johnson County was forced to switch from touchscreen to paper ballots for the November election.

?I know personally that things should have gone a lot smoother,? Jackson said. ?They were contracted to do a job for the county, and we have to determine if they legally broke that contract.?

When the county switched machines, ES&S provided optical scanning machines and paid for expenses, such as printing paper ballots and obtaining privacy booths for voters to use at polls.

Jackson would not say if she thought the county should sue ES&S or seek reimbursement. That is a decision the county commissioners and attorney will have to make, she said.

?If Marion County was successful, I don?t know why we wouldn?t be,? she said.

Eggers could not be reached for comment.