Ohio replaces voting machine reviewer

09/30/03
Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus - Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has replaced a firm slated to help conduct the security review of Ohio's newly certified voting machines - after his office discovered that the firm had a financial interest in one of the machine makers.

The decision followed his office's discovery that an arm of Science Applications International Corp. had promised to make a $5 million investment that would benefit Hart Intercivic.

Hart was one of four voting machine vendors qualified this summer to sell voting machines to Ohio counties. SAIC, a Fortune 500 research and engineering firm, was to share the job of reviewing the firms' machines and software. The review was to identify security weaknesses that might jeopardize the integrity of next year's presidential election.

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SAIC has been replaced by Compuware, a Michigan firm. Compuware will join InfoSentry in completing the security review. Both have pledged in statements to Blackwell's office to have no conflicts of interest with the four vendors whose systems they are reviewing, Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said.

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