As I mentioned in a quick hit yesterday, the Secretary if State’s office has filed a lawsuit against voting machine company ES&S. The suit is seeking $15 million from the Omaha, NB for selling almost 1,000 uncertified voting machines to 5 counties in California.

The lawsuit alleges that the company sold 972 uncertified machines to Colusa, Marin, Merced and Solano counties, as well as the city and county of San Francisco.
The suit also calls for a $10,000 penalty per machine. Which would result in almost $2.9 million for San Francisco alone.

The SFGate is reporting that this this is the first time that the Secretary of State’s office has has to use this rule of the voting code.
The company is, of course, denying that any violations occurred. And charges that the suit would be detrimental to the voting rights of the disabled.

But Bowen responds with:

But Bowen said there is no ambiguity in the law.

“Changes … must be submitted to the secretary of state before a voting machine can be sold or used in California,” she said. “California law doesn’t ask the manufacturer to decide whether the changes are small or large or medium-size.”

California only learned about the changes when an ES&S representative inadvertently mentioned the new version of the AutoMARK in a telephone conference call with state election officials. The company never even mentioned to the state or the five counties that changes had been made to the machines that were shipped, Bowen said.

The city of San Francisco has previously filed suit against ES&S claiming that their machines had delayed certifying the vote in the November 6 elections.