November 11, 2008
Carper wants vote machines replaced over Election Day jams
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The president of the Kanawha County Commission wants Electronic Equipment & Software to replace two ballot-counting machines that consistently jammed when tabulating ballots on Election Day.

"We have had serious problems with the M650s [vote-counting machines] since the first time they were placed in service," Kent Carper wrote in a letter sent on Monday to Also Tesi, president and CEO of ES&S, based in Omaha, Neb.

No one at ES&S could be reached for comment late Monday afternoon.

When the machines were counting ballots from Kanawha County's precincts, ES&S technicians tries to lessen the jamming and occasionally gave the machines "a little tap on the side" to stop the jams, Carper said.

"I am not sure if it is an issue of defective equipment, inferior technology, or all of the above," he added.

Kanawha County paid ES&S $2.7 million for its optical-scan voting machines, including $118,214 for the two ballot-counting machines at the county clerk's office.

Carper repeated a concern he has raised during the past three years, since Secretary of State Betty Ireland approved ES&S as the exclusive provider of all voting machines for the entire state, some of which are touch-screen machines.

"I am not sure whether we are limited to working with ES&S on replacements for their equipment or if we may deal with another vendor," Carper said in a news release.

ES&S is one of four companies that make electronic voting machines used in many states.

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