Chicago/Cook County selects Sequoia

[AtLiberty]

County, city opt for past in ballots

Chicago Tribune
By John McCormick, Tribune staff reporter.
Tribune staff reporters Laurie Cohen and Dan Mihalopoulos contributed to this report
Published June 2, 2005

The notorious punch-card ballot--and its hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads--will be a relic of the past in Chicago and suburban Cook County by early 2006 following the expected approval of more than $50 million in new voting equipment.

Chicago election officials Wednesday selected California-based Sequoia Voting Systems to provide touch screen and optical scan equipment for each of the city's more than 2,700 precincts, a contract expected to be worth about $28million.

Late last week, Cook County Clerk David Orr also recommended Sequoia, although a final decision is still needed by the Board of Commissioners. That contract would provide equipment for more than 2,400 precincts at an estimated cost of $23.8 million...

*snip*

"We are surprised that the city and county would move toward a technology that dates back to the mid-1980s," said David Bear, a spokesman for Ohio-based Diebold Inc., a finalist.

*snip*

"We think the technology is very, very sound," said Robert Saar, executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission. "It's proven technology."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0506020310jun02,1,1017459.story

To write John McCormick, Tribune staff reporter:

[e-mail]

[hedda_foil]

1. Ooooh. Sounds like Diebold is MAD!

Good. David Orr's staff did a magnificent job researching the equipment, the companies and the dirt from other states and counties. They know all the DRE technology sucks so they bought as little as they could -- for disabled access, Chinese and Spanish language ballots. Illinois demands a VVPB, so the DREs have paper trails, for what good that does. Hopefully, they won't be used much.

[riqster]

2. Not a victory...

But it could've been a lot worse.

[FogerRox]

3. they wont get a contract--it may be a PO--

The Sequoia audio component that makes it HAVA compliant will braek or not work.

Sequoia also charegs about 15% fee on software