Four Indiana counties had numerous problems with their purchase of iVotronic touchscreen machines from ES&S in 2003. They used the machines for elections in November 2003, only to later find that ES&S had installed a newer, uncertified version of the software without telling election officials. Here's part of a report from a local Indiana newspaper in March 2004:
The Nebraska-based company sold electronic touch-screen voting systems to Johnson and at least three other Indiana counties last year. Although the systems seemed to work well, state officials discovered later that some of the preinstalled software was a new version not yet certified to current state and federal election standards.
As a solution, the company proposed using an older, certified version of the software in the primary.
However, Johnson County Clerk Jill Jackson and other county election board members were concerned that the older software was not as user-friendly as the newer version used in the fall.
The four county clerks involved were further alarmed recently when Election Systems representatives told them in a conference call that the older software might not tabulate votes correctly.
Although the counties involved remain frustrated with Election Systems, they asked the election commission to approve use of the uncertified software. Their request inspired some leniency by the commission, which had issued subpoenas to bring company officials to the meeting.<snip>
http://www.thejournalnet.com/Main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=113&ArticleID=42357The sentence highlighted in boldface raises some questions. Why wouldn't the old software tabulate votes correctly? After all, it had been certified. What could possibly go wrong? And had this certified software that ES&S said "might not tabulate votes correctly" been used in any elections in Indiana or anywhere else? If it was, did ES&S inform government officials that their software might not count votes correctly? Also, why does this report first say that ES&S first proposed a solution of using the old software when they knew it might not count votes correctly? Also, note that officials had to issue subpoenas to get ES&S to appear at the meeting.
The ES&S touchscreens were used in the May primaries. In June we get this report regarding getting the machines certified for the November election:
“We’re doing everything we can to move this along,” said Robb McGinnis, a regional sales manager for ES&S who sold Johnson County the touch-screen equipment. “I’d hate to give you guesses because I’d probably be wrong.”
County officials have been struggling to resolve issues with ES&S for months since finding out parts of the software used on the machines were not certified by the state for election use.
Election board members say they were twice misled by ES&S and confidence in the company has been shaken.
Before the primary election, company technicians told the county clerk they were performing maintenance on the machines, when they actually were switching out software to replace an unapproved version for a certified one.
That followed an earlier incident when the company used unapproved components called firmware in November’s municipal election without telling the board.
The election board has considered terminating the contract, suing ES&S for breach of contract and hiring a new voting-machine vendor for November, but it doubts a new company could be hired and provide equipment in time for the November election.
ES&S officials have apologized for the problems and say the certification issues were caused by miscommunication among company employees.http://www.thejournalnet.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=44165&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=113&S=1What? Without the Commission's knowledge, for elections in November 2003 ES&S had used uncertified, newer software (or is it firmware?); but then after a ruling from the Election Commission to leave it in for the May primary, ES&S switched it back to the old software "that might not tabulate correctly." I suppose these could all be honest mistakes, but local officials have become so frustrated with ES&S that they are contemplating filing a lawsuit.
Johnson County ended up not using the machines for the election on November 2; they used paper ballots instead. I haven't learned yet what the other three counties ended up using.
http://www.thejournalnet.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=45603&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=113&S=1Also, note the person who originally sold the machines with uncertified software: Robb McGinnis. This is a common name at ES&S. There are at least four employees with the last name of McGinnis. A possibly very important story about tampering with voting machines in Auglaize County, Ohio a few weeks ago involved a Joe McGinnis.
In a letter dated Oct. 21, Ken Nuss, former deputy director of the Auglaize County Board of Elections, claimed that Joe McGinnis, a former employee of Election Systems and Software (ES&S), the company that provides the voting system in Auglaize County, was on the main computer that is used to create the ballot and compile election results, which would go against election protocol. Nuss claimed in the letter that McGinnis was allowed to use the computer the weekend of Oct. 16.http://www.theeveningleader.com/articles/2004/11/06/new... Dan McGinnis is a VP of ES&S.
http://lists.electorama.com/pipermail/election-methods-... There is also a Keith McGinnis. Three of the four McGinnis's were at this meeting in Indiana.
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/iec/minutes/min12799.ht... So Joe McGinnis, who was caught tampering with a computer in Ohio a couple of weeks ago, is not just any employee. Apparently, he's related to top management. He is also apparently related to Robb McGinnis, who could possibly be involved in a game of three-card monty with software in Indiana.
Here's a post I made last week regarding ES&S (the McGinnis references were first mentioned here):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=38210And here's a DU post I had made last week about Indiana's problems with Diebold and the transfer of votes from Kerry to Bednarik.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x44109
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