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StumbleuponLocal counties join vote machine suit
Boards of elections are parties to claim filed by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
DAYTON — Four area county boards of elections are parties to a breach-of-contract lawsuit counterclaim filed by the Ohio Secretary of State on Wednesday, Aug. 6, against the maker of touch-screen electronic voting machines.
Montgomery, Greene, Miami and Butler counties are among 11 counties that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said experienced voting machine equipment malfunctions, including failure to properly tabulate votes.
The problems were discovered and votes were counted. But they are the latest in a long string of issues found with the electronic machines manufactured by Premier Election Solutions Inc., including calibration problems that could have caused votes to be inaccurately recorded in Montgomery County.
In January, Brunner called for the machines to be replaced statewide after a state study found critical security failures.
"If one purchases a $6 million voting system one would expect it to count accurately," said Butler County Board of Elections Director Betty McGary, who first alerted Brunner and Premier to the problem with the March primary count.
For legal reasons Montgomery, Greene, Miami and Butler counties and the other counties are defendants along with Premier in the counterclaim filed by Brunner in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, said spokesman Jeff Ortega. The counterclaim is the state's response to Premier's June lawsuit against Cuyahoga County, which had scrapped the company's machines because of problems.
Brunner's lawsuit seeks damages only against Premier, formerly known as Diebold Election Systems. She repeatedly notes that her predecessor, Kenneth Blackwell, certified the machines and accuses Premier of making false claims in order to win certification. The company is accused of breach of warranty, breach of contract and fraud.
Premier spokesman Chris Riggall had not seen the counterclaim and declined comment on it. But he blamed the vote tabulation problems on McAfee anti-virus software on computer servers.
Brunner should follow up with procedures to make sure the machines function correctly in the November election, said Ellis Jacobs, lead attorney for Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, which identified Montgomery County's calibration problems and mechanical issues such as paper jams.
All four local counties found Premier's tabulation software failed to upload votes from memory cards, while equipment indicated the votes had been counted. Officials blamed human error until Butler County notified Brunner.
On Wednesday, Brunner's office tested Butler County's equipment to determine what is causing the software glitch.
"It's a shame that this incredibly important equipment has all of these problems," Jacobs said.
