From the Herald/Times [emphasis added]….
McCollum’s office has issued at least six subpoenas covering every major voting-machine company as part of a civil investigation of Election Systems & Software’s $5 million acquisition of Diebold Inc.’s elections division — a merger that would give a private company too much power over the machines used to cast votes, voting-rights groups say.
“Our office engaged in this issue because anti-competitive behavior can seriously harm consumers,” McCollum said in a written statement. “Competitive behavior encourages the best products be available to consumers, including technology, particularly in a market as sensitive as the voting systems market.”
Under the state’s 1980 anti-trust law, McCollum could persuade a court to levy fines against ES&S or prevent the company from operating in Florida. By next year, the company is expected to be the exclusive provider of voting machines and services in 65 of the 67 counties in Florida, the nation’s most important swing state.
That means, under the acquisition announced Sept. 2, ES&S will provide election services to 92 percent of Florida’s 11.2 million voters.
More broadly, ES&S’s purchase of the competitor company gives it control of the voting machines in nearly 70 percent of the nation’s precincts, according to a federal lawsuit in Delaware filed by a rival company, Hart Intercivic. The U.S. Department of Justice is conducting its own inquiry.
ES&S, of course, told the Herald/Times that their acquisition of Diebold “will result in better products and services for all customers and voters alike.” And, if you believe that, we’ve got an unhackable voting machine to sell you….
[Hat-tip BRAD BLOG emailer JM]
Sweet Mother of God.
Thank you, Brad, for staying on top of this thoroughly mortifying development. Does “by next year” mean “by NOVEMBER of next year” ?! Barring court intervention, when exactly does this merger go into effect?
And, where does this case go, Brad – Second Circuit, Tallahassee? Is it bound to wind up in the sterile court room of our former dark nimnon, The Honorable William L. Google-Me-I-Dare-Ya Gary?
For ef’s sake.
ES&S is so uber-thuggy. Tell me these guys care one beaver’s ass about the Florida electorate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-19CTs2NWJ8
Wanna see an unthinkable Teabagger victory in 2010 that right now some stupidly duped progressives / Dems all chortle about as never-ever even being in the same neighborhood as remotely possible? 2010 as trial run. 2012 sees ES&S putting all of it’s FLORIDA ELECTORAL CHIPS on RED PALIN 12, or DOBBS, or the most believable lacky du jour.
Simple Simon + ESS + plausible enough explanation = winning (stealing) back the Oval Office. (As far as you can steal anything that you’re allowed to walk right it and take.)
Read this earlier on Professor Miller’s blog
Jeannie Dean – As I’m on the road still, so unable to dig TOO deeply into anyone one thing, I can only answer one of your questions for the moment:
Has already done so. Call a Diebold (Premier) service line, and they’ll answer it as ES&S.
It can only be reversed at this point, as I understand it, as it’s already in effect.
Well, if people don’t talk about or support new and upcoming vendors you will have no choice but to use ESS, Sequoia and Hart. The time is NOW to start to pay attention to new paper based voting systems such as the one offered by PenVote. Visit penvote.com and learn more.
Chris Wilson said “Well, if people don’t talk about or support new and upcoming vendors you will have no choice but to use ESS, Sequoia and Hart.”
well, we could use your super duper electro pen for voting, though I’m not sure what problem you’re trying to solve with it, or we could just vote and count the ballots without any private vendor anywhere near our efforts at SELF governance.
I see no reason why any private vendor needs to be anywhere near the process . If I’m missing the reason as to why any of them are needed at all, I hope you’ll fill me in.
Well, the choice is this: you can play around with this fantasy of self governance and waste your time huffing and puffing about it, all the while ES&S and the others will run things. Or you can wake up and realize that you need something better. I’m shocked that you don’t see what problem we’re trying to solve with it. Maybe if you actually bothered to LEARN about it rather than being a Luddite with your head in the sand, you might actually realize what we’re trying to offer. Oh, that’s right; you’ve never worked in the business–that explains it.
Chris said:
It seems your interest in making money on the “business” of our public elections has led you to write something so deeply offensive, and anti-American above, that I’m not sure how I should even respond. Yes, I’ll keep “play[ing] around with idea of self governance”, ya know, like all that “huffing and puffing” in the Constitution.
You’ve just blown any all respectability that your magic electro pen might have had, Chris. Smartly done.
I’m presuming you mean “better” than ES&S, etc., rather than “better” than self governance (though your comment was so offensive, on so many levels, I’m not sure of anything from you anymore, Chris).
I see. You’re unable, or afraid to articulate that “problem [you’re] trying to solve” with your super secret electro pen elections. I suspect the only “problem” then, is the lack of money currently in your pocket, and your interest in getting more from the “business” of our elections.
Color me particularly unimpressed.
I believe I already have, and articulated it above (at least in lieu of your offering your own explanation, which you’ve failed to do here).
As to the “Luddite” thing, you’re about 6 years behind in using that lame attack which even Diebold, ES&S et al have largely abandoned since it didn’t work any better for them.
In case you’re still unaware, I was a computer programmer for about 10 years, and have been using computers and new technologies for one thing after another for about 20 or 30. If I’m a “Luddite”, you are a Constitutionalist.
True, I’ve never worked in the “business” of our public elections. I thought it best to leave it to parasites like you to privatize the very heart of our public, representative, self governance.
Good luck to you, Chris. If you weren’t before, you are now officially on a fool’s errand with your super secret computerized electro voting pen. I hope the technology isn’t as shitty as the PR.