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Barry,
I'd revisit the issue of "managing" modems. This seems like a red herring to
me. In Seattle we used 35 modem lines on a rollover. Once the lines were
installed and modems hooked up there was literally nothing else we had to do.
We were able to xfer about 400 polling locations with an average of 5-6
precincts each and a large 14" ballot. Personally, I think wireless will not
work as well as our standard technology, and that there would be alot more
aggravation due to weather, shadowing of signals, etc. After the debacle in
Hawaii and Dallas, does ESS still have alot of credibility in Minnesota?
Here's a sample article.
<HTML><FONT SIZE=3 PTSIZE=10>Subj: <B>hawaii</FONT><FONT SIZE=3 PTSIZE=10></B><BR>
Date: 2/3/99 2:03:03 PM Pacific Standard Time<BR>
From: Fkglobal<BR>
To: SKGLOBAL<BR>
CC: rob@gesn.com<BR>
</FONT><FONT SIZE=3 PTSIZE=10><BR>
Published Wednesday<BR>
February 03, 1999<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT SIZE=5 PTSIZE=16><B>Omaha Firm Offers to Pay for Recount</FONT><FONT SIZE=3 PTSIZE=10></B><BR>
<BR>
BY STEVE JORDON<BR>
<BR>
WORLD-HERALD BUSINESS EDITOR<BR>
<BR>
An Omaha election-equipment company has offered to pay to recount ballots in Hawaii's 1998 general election after an audit of new electronic-polling<BR>
machines showed some of them malfunctioned.Election Systems & Software of Omaha, whose machines count some 60 percent of ballots cast in the<BR>
United States, provided 300 machines used in the election in Hawaii.<BR>
<BR>
Newspapers in Hawaii reported that 35 of the machines have been examined and that seven machines malfunctioned, according to the Associated<BR>
Press. Tom Eschberger, a company official, said the company has offered to pay for a recount.<BR>
<BR>
"We would support any type of manual recount for the entire election, and have even offered to pay for it," Eschberger said. "We would not do that if we felt<BR>
that this election was going to be flawed."<BR>
<BR>
With Election Systems equipment, voters mark paper ballots which are then counted by electronic scanning machines. One of the strengths of the system,<BR>
company officials have said, is that paper ballots are available for recounts. Some mechanical voting machines tally votes but have no paper ballots to recount.<BR>
<BR>
Election Systems is privately owned by employees, management and a partnership that includes the McCarthy Group, an Omaha investment banking firm, and World Investments, a division of the Omaha World-Herald Co., which publishes The<BR>
World-Herald.<BR>
<BR>
Hawaii's Senate may look into the election results because of a pattern of errors discovered in an audit of the polling machines, according to published<BR>
reports.<BR>
<BR>
Senate President Norman Mizuguchi said he was trying to confirm reports that several machines malfunctioned. "My responsibility at this point is to<BR>
pool all the information together," he said. "I haven't finalized anything as yet."<BR>
Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, an Oahu Democrat, had called for a Senate investigation of the Office of Elections based on over-votes in a precinct in the 44th House District. She said she wants to head the investigation.<BR>
<BR>
Over-votes means more than one vote was cast on one ballot in the same race.<BR>
Sen. Rod Tam, also an Oahu Democrat, said he and Hanabusa were drafting a Senate resolution calling for an investigation of the election procedures and<BR>
state Chief Elections Officer Dwayne Yoshina.<BR>
There are allegations that Yoshina told certain government officials about inaccuracies in the new voting system before the election, Tam said. "There<BR>
are questions as to whether the election was fixed, and why some of these elections were close."<BR>
<BR>
The Associated Press contributed to this report.<BR>
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