The second lawsuit since February has been filed against the state of Ohio because of Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's changing decisions regarding voting machines.
Election Systems & Software Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the state of Ohio over the state's decision to use, exclusively, a rival manufacturer's touch-screen voting machines.
Before this lawsuit was filed, a deadline was set that requires all interested manufacturers to submit their machine system plans by May 13.
This deadline did not give companies enough time to comply with standards, while Election Systems & Software can provide touch-screen machines meeting state requirements by the next November election, said spokeswoman Meghan McCormick.
A big part of this lawsuit is seeking an injunction against this arbitrary deadline
McCormick said.
The Omaha, Neb., based company serves about 1,700 jurisdictions across the country, or about 50 percent of the voters in the country. McCormick said the company wants to give counties a choice in choosing voting machines. The company already provides an optical scan machine that meets standards and is available for purchase by counties.
Specifications for machines were set a year and a half ago. About six months after this initial law, the Ohio General Assembly passed more legislation requiring all voting machines to have a paper trail, said James Lee, spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.
As for the deadline, Lee said the date was justified and contractors had plenty of notice. Lee said just because the machines would be ready by the November election does not mean everything else would be ready.
Machines have to be shipped poll workers have to be trained and voters have to be educated Lee said.
Education of voters will be occurring soon, Lee said, and will include events around the state as well as public service announcements on television.
This lawsuit is the second filed this year after certain Blackwell directives regarding the state's new voting machines, said Kim Norris, spokeswoman for Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro.
In February, Hart Intercivic Inc., based in Texas, sued over Blackwell's decision requiring counties to choose optical scan voting machines. Norris said the company already had signed contracts with six Ohio counties and would lose those contracts.
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