ES&S MELTDOWN: TX SoS Warns Officials to Create Emergency Paper Ballots!

[BradBlog]

EXCLUSIVE - ES&S MELTDOWN: Texas SoS Office Advises Election Officials to Create 'Emergency Paper Ballots' for Upcoming Elections!
Director of Elections Sends Letter Authorizing Measure in Light of Latest Failure by Electronic Voting Machine Vendor
Says Company's Performance in Most Recent -- of Many Similar Incidences Around the Country -- is 'Completely Unacceptable and Disturbing'

On Monday, Texas Director of Elections Ann McGeehan sent a letter to all state Election Officials authorizing them to create "emergency paper ballots" in light of statewide failures by Election System & Software, Inc. (ES&S) to provide ballots in time for the state's upcoming May 13 Runoff Elections, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

Early voting begins on Monday for those elections and counties across the state do not yet have ballots and, in many cases, programming for their optical-scan and touch-screen voting machines. ES&S has contracts with more than 140 Texas counties.

McGeehan has instructed officials to create and number their own paper ballots, secure boxes to store them in, and hire additional workers to manually hand count ballots as an emergency procedure to deal with the rapidly deteriorating situation.

The letter from McGeehan (posted in full exclusively at the link below) -- which does not mention ES&S by name, but refers to the Omaha, Nebraska-based company only as "a certified voting systems vendor" -- was sent in response to complaints from officials around the state that "programming media or, in some cases, your ballots" had not been received yet by officials.

The BRAD BLOG has also received statements from officials in other states who were much more direct in expressing their frustration with the company's business practices now being described by some as including "coercion" and "threats."

Our breaking report this morning documents similar meltdowns and failures in Ohio, Indiana, West Virgina, California and more as ES&S failure to meet contractual obligations has left voters in the dark, and Election Officials scrambling for back up solutions.

And that's just the jurisdictions dealing with ES&S as the other vendors are all have similar problems to disastrous effect...

COMPLETE STORY, FULL LETTER FROM TEXAS SoS OFFICE...
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002742.htm

---
Brad Friedman
THE BRAD BLOG - The uprising continues...
http://www.BradBlog.com
VELVET REVOLUTION - The revolution begins...
http://www.VelvetRevolution.us

[Tuesday_Morning]

1. what a mess!

[dweller]

2. throw the damned machines in the Gulf!

it's closer than the Harbor...

dp

[Stevepol]

3. Every election now should be an emergency!!

[Stevepol]

4. Every election now should be an emergency!!

[IndyOp]

5. Texas? Paper Ballots? Holy, holy, holy...

[BrightKnight]

6. .

[Judi Lynn]

7. Thank you, BradBlog. Hope this is a sign we'll get that breakthrough

we've all needed so long.

If only this trend will continue.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Prepare PAPER BALLOTS

and hire people to do HAND COUNTS!

What a concept!

[Rex]

9. Looks like Senator Hagel needs to fix his companies 'hardware' mess.

At least before the 2008 elections! He wants to win! :evilgrin:

[robbibaba]

10. I wonder if people would volunteer to count ballots?

I know I would. Volunteer counters could be screened just the same as hired ones. Could save millions. We could use the savings to set up a colony on a desert island for all the evil bastards who have been corrupting our elections. Just an idea.

[magellan]

12. I would too

Anything to preserve the sanctity of our votes.

And I like your desert island idea. What was the name of the island they just found that old Japanese soldier on, the one who thought WWII was still on?....

[Media_Lies_Daily]

11. Excellent job, BradBlog! K & R,