That cause is not likely to be helped by the recent merger of ES&S (the dominant Election Systems & Software) and Premier Election Solutions (formerly a subsidiary of Diebold). Together, they will serve nearly 70 percent of the nation's voting precincts.
 
Even before the merger, the field had few manufacturers able to compete for contracts with elections supervisors. Now, there will be even fewer.
 
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has called for a Department of Justice review of the merger, and he is right to do so.
 
"I am deeply concerned that local governments and taxpayers will not be getting a fair deal," he wrote to the U.S. attorney general.
 
ESSENTIALS OF DEMOCRACY
 
It raises alarms when one company has so much influence over equipment essential to the democratic process. The merger also comes at a time when the voting process in general is low on credibility, following several high-profile election controversies.
 
In 2005, for example, a team of computer experts experimented on a Diebold system and found that it was vulnerable to undetectable fraud.