Voting Machine Maker Faces Federal Hearings

Voting machine maker faces federal hearings
Kanawha commissioner also asks AG to investigate
By Paul J. Nyden | WV Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The company that makes the electronic voting machines used in many states, including West Virginia, will be the focus of congressional hearings next month.

Fourteen states and the U.S. Department of Justice have opened investigations into whether Election Systems & Software owns too much of the voting machine market nationally.

On Sept. 1, Omaha, Neb.-based ES&S bought Diebold Inc.'s voting machine business, giving ES&S 70 percent of the national market.
States with their own investigations into the growing ES&S monopoly are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., plans to hold the congressional hearings.

"What will happen tomorrow and over the next few years to the cost of maintaining and improving the machines, especially when the company has almost a total monopoly?" asked Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper, a longtime critic of ES&S.

ES&S officials did not return telephone messages last week.

During the 2008 elections, ES&S voting machines generated controversies in several West Virginia counties, including Kanawha County. Read more.