Elections firm had ties to Pinellas County, Fla

[rainbow4321]

Ok, I KNOW this is an article from a couple years ago but it is still interesting--tells of Elections Systems & Software and a county official in Florida. Shows these weird little cozy relationships between Florida officials and the voting machine companies going back a few years/elections:

http://www.sptimes.com/News/071201/TampaBay/Elections_firm_has_ti.shtml

While Deborah Clark worked as a top official in the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections Office, her husband's employer was awarded more than $400,000 in business with the office.

Now, Clark heads the office, and that company, Elections Systems & Software, is a leading contender to land a lucrative contract -- worth as much as $15-million -- to sell new voting machines to Pinellas County, records show

To complicate matters, Clark's deputy administrator, Karen Butler, is the sister of Sandra Mortham, Florida's former secretary of state and now a lobbyist for ES&S before the state Legislature. Butler is one of more than a dozen senior staff members helping to evaluate competing systems, but she told the Times that family ties won't matter.


It was almost a month ago that Clark notified county commissioners that ES&S was one of her top two choices for the voting-machine contract. A memo written by Clark indicated ES&S had the edge on price, saying it could provide touch-screen machines for $14.8-million while rival Sequoia Pacific Systems would charge $21.4-million

[bj2110]

1. Are you kidding me? Deb Clark's husband worked for ES & S? n/t

[rainbow4321]

2. That's what it says...

Is it any wonder all this shit happened down there in 2000..and spread elsewhere this time around. Everybody's in bed with each other...

[eleny]

3. Incestuous

[ClintCooper2003]

4. Of course! There's no way they could have won Pinellas County....

without fraudulent activity.

[magellan]

5. This country is so inured to corruption

that we just let blatant conflicts of interest like this stand. It's infuriating.

[NVMojo]

6. true, and it is hard to imagine having to go state by state to clean

up after all of this corruption....but it needs to be done...we need to find a way to make honesty and integrity in public service part of the VALUES of Americans again....

[flyarm]

7. I WAS AT THIS PRESS CONF TODAY...

DEBORAH CLARK SAID THERE MAY BE DISIPLINARY ACTIONS AGAINST SOME ELECTION OFFICICALS!!..BUT SHE WOULD NOT NAME THEM AND WOULD NOT SAY WHY ...I SNUCK IN ..AND GOT THE BOOK SHE GAVE OUT TO MEDIA..AS THEY THOUGHT I WAS A REPORTER!!

when reporters were finished questioning her..i asked the final question..i told her i was a pollwatcher and i wanted to know if any of her employees would be diciplined for trying to intimidate pollwatchers in early vote..i said we were doing our civic duty, and yet some of her employees thought it was prudent for themselves to do what they could to intimidate those of us overseeing our own election!!...she didnt want to answer me ..so she had her workers in there take my name and number and they said they wanted to interview me!..i experienced a very nast supervisor who did his best to attempt to intimidate me,..wasn't possible though...i dont intimidate easily!!

baynews9.com - News : You can count on it!

[SaveAmerica]

9. That;'s excellent that you stood up like that, Flyarm n/t

[soup]

10. flyarm, what can I say?

:loveya: Thank You.

---

You said book? Is that the new policy standards?

such as - clearly marking a ballot box with the lettering 'BALLOT BOX'?

They really burned the midnight oil on that one, hey? :eye roll:

or adding checks and balances when they don't use the ones that are already in place?

What was the title? '100 Ways to Duck Responsibility'? 'How to Pass the Buck'?

Was this reported on air?

http://baynews9.com/content/36/2004/12/6/64170.html
a blip:
>>Gov. Jeb Bush says he will look into proposing a law allowing supervisors of elections to change amended tallies after the deadline if there is a technical error.<<

banging my head against the wall. repeatedly. painfully. technical as in found ballots? or technical as in certifying the wrong results?

Thank you for being there. Thank you for sharing the information. Let us know how the interview goes.

[EFerrari]

8. Here's another conflict of interest - a keeper

The AP has a group called APME (AP Managing Editors). They set policy, write the code of ethics.

The president of that group is also the Managing Editor of the Omaha World-Herald.

So, the folks that own ES&S also own the World-Hearld. The managing editor is a key policy maker for the AP. Now, there's a clubhouse.

Here's a bit from the Disinfopedia page on ES&S:

History

Founded in 1996 as American Information Systems Inc. (AIS), it merged with Business Records Corp. the following year and changed its name to ES&S.

ES&S is a subsidiary of McCarthy Group Inc., which is jointly held by the holding firm and the Omaha World-Herald Co., the publisher of Nebraska's largest newspaper.