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.

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.

The others are: Sequoia Voting Systems, Hart InterCivic and Diebold, now called Premier Election Systems. Those vendors are coming under increased criticism from states around the country, including Ohio, California, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Maryland and Virginia recently decided to eliminate the use of electronic voting machines in future elections.

In his letter to Tesi, Carper also questioned the qualifications of the technicians ES&S sent to monitor the machines on Election Day.

"The technicians provided on November 4, 2008, had little, if any, knowledge of how to service the M650s and no more than 30 days' experience working with ES&S.

"Fortunately, a knowledgeable technician was on site servicing our M100s [the optical-scan voting machines] who stepped in to assist when your technician became ill and needed to leave on election night."

Carper also sent a letter to Casto & Harris, a contractor for ES&S based in Spencer, questioning the paper ballots it supplied.

"We are particularly concerned that the weight and texture was different than that used during the primary election," Carper wrote.

Carper believes the different "weight and texture" of the paper supplied for general election ballots might have caused the vote-counting machines to suffer from "significant jams."

Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 348-5164.