ES&S acquires company that makes voting machines for disabled

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

Voting machine maker Election Systems & Software will acquire another company that makes machines that help voters with disabilities mark their own ballots.

ES&S already sold the voting terminal for the disabled that Automark Technical Systems makes, so officials with both companies said combining operations made sense.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ES&S is based in Omaha. Automark is based in Chicago.

ATS President Gene Cummings says he believes ES&S will be able to expand sales of the voting machine for the disabled because it has a larger sales network.

ES&S will continue providing service to customers that already bought the specialized voting machines.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=10244603

[LiberalFighter]

1. Rather than have a separate machine that allows only the disable to vote

I suggest that the disable can pick one of two or three cards that is inserted into the machine. The election worker assigned to that task would then make the selection based on the disabled person's choice. After the choices would be displayed on the screen after the election worker leaves for the voter to verify the choices are correct.

The card would select the disable mode of the machine that leaves the names of the candidates off the ballot. Only the voter would know the order the candidates would be displayed for that vote.

[Peace Patriot]

2. ES&S just got sued by CA SoS for $15 million for substituting uncertified AutoMark

machines for the earlier certified AutoMark model, in San Francisco and other counties. Almost a 1,000 voting machines involved. ES&S lying, fraud.

http://electiondefensealliance.org/2007/11/ca_sec_state_sues_es_s_15_million_illegal_sales

docs on lawsuit at
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ess_automark_hearing.htm

involves SF, Colusa, Merced, Marin and Solano counties

So I don't quite understand how ES&S is just now purchasing AutoMark. Anybody got a clue?