Break up ES&S
Miami Herald Mar 12 2010The acquisition of one company by another for the relatively small sum of $5 million doesn't usually set off alarms. But the September 2009 acquisition of Premier Diebold Solutions by Election Systems & Software means that one firm controls more than 70 percent of the voting machines used in the United States. No matter how well-intentioned this merger, it is not good for U.S. voters.
In Florida, voters use ES&S machines in 65 of 67 counties, meaning that around 92 percent of the state's 11.2 million ballots will be cast this year on ES&S equipment.
Monopolies and democracies do not make good bedfellows. Fortunately, this consolidation appears to be unraveling. The U.S. Justice Department should prevent such monopolistic control over voting resources in the future.
The merger denied Florida election supervisors leverage to pressure ES&S with the threat of competition. If the deal is allowed to stand, ES&S will control equipment, maintenance and support services and, in some counties, handle ballot design, too. Remember Palm Beach County's confusing butterfly ballots in the 2000 presidential election fiasco? Florida still smarts over that debacle.
After the merger, response out of Tallahassee was disappointingly muted, however. Florida's top election official, Secretary of State Kurt Browning, took the near-monopoly with sanguinity. But in December, Attorney General Bill McCollum investigated because the merger appeared to constitute anti-competitive behavior that could harm consumers.
