Georgia’s Election Reform Initiative: Questions and Answers

Q:         Who has been selected to provide Georgia’s statewide electronic voting system?

A:         Diebold Election Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Diebold, Incorporated and a leading manufacturer and installer of electronic voting systems.

Q:         What is the total value of the contract?

A:         Approximately $53,950,000.  It is the largest contract of its kind in the history of the United States.

Q:         What equipment and services are included in the contract?

A:         Under the terms of the contract Diebold will provide:

• 19,015 AccuVote-TS^TM (touch screen) voting systems for use in Georgia’s       2,823 precincts.

• 400 optical scan ballot readers for tabulation of absentee ballots.

• A perpetual statewide license for Diebold’s Global Election Management System (GEMS^TM) software to manage and control the election process.

• A computer server for each county to operate the GEMS system.

• Extensive, hands-on regional training in the use of the system for at least two election officials from each Georgia county.

• Extensive onsite technical support. Diebold will deploy 160 technicians to test, set up and maintain the voting systems in each Georgia county through the 2002 General Election.  Onsite technical support will be available to counties on an as needed basis through the 2004 General Primary Runoff.

• A warranty for both the hardware and software.

• Assistance with state voter education programs.

Q:         What safeguards exist for proper performance of the new system?

A:         There will be extensive testing of each voting unit upon its arrival in Georgia.  Staff from the Center for Elections at Kennesaw State University will perform quality control audits and acceptance testing of the voting units in each Georgia county.  Throughout the deployment process the vendor is required to meet established milestones in order to receive payment.

Q:         Will counties be provided sufficient voting units under this contract?

A:         Yes.  Equipment will be apportioned equally to counties based upon their number of active registered voters.  The voter registration list changes from month to month, but based on today’s active registration of 3,727,821, the ratio of DRE units to voters is 1 to 196 – an amount that falls well within manufacturer’s recommendations and is similar to the ratio typically used by other jurisdictions that have acquired DRE equipment.

Q:         What costs will counties incur as part of this deployment?

A:         Counties will receive free of charge the equipment, training, software license and onsite testing and support described above.  Additional training at Kennesaw’s Center for Elections and a 24-hour help desk will also be provided to counties free of charge.  Should counties choose to fund acquisition of additional voting units, they may do so for an established statewide contract price.

Q:         How many manufacturers submitted bids and who were they?

A:         Nine equipment manufacturers submitted bids.  They were: Millenium Year 2000 Solutions, Inc., Unilect Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation, TruVote International, Inc., Diebold Election Systems, Inc., Election Systems & Software, Accenture, Shoup Voting Solutions and Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems.

Q:         On what basis was the award to Diebold made?  Were they the low bidder?

A:         The state’s Request For Proposal specified that proposals would be evaluated based upon the “best value” for the state rather than on price alone.  Diebold was neither the highest or lowest bidder.

Q:         How were the bids evaluated?  Who was involved in making the decision?

A:         Secretary of State Cox appointed an evaluation committee to review the proposals and recommend the vendor that offered the “best value” solution.  The committee spent several weeks evaluating proposals and conducting tests of equipment capabilities. The 12-member committee was comprised of seven employees from the Secretary of State’s office and one each from the Office of Planning and Budget, the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Georgia Technology Authority.  In addition, two retired county election superintendents, from Bibb and Fulton Counties, served on the committee.  The committee’s recommendation that Diebold be selected was unanimous.  The recommendation was reviewed by Georgia’s Chief Information Officer Larry Singer and endorsed by Secretary of State Cox.

Q:         Are these electronic voting units accessible to the visually impaired?

A:         All of the DRE voting units may be configured with an “ADA kit” to accommodate the visually impaired, and to allow them to make ballot choices independently and without assistance via an audio interface.  One DRE unit in each Georgia precinct will be configured in this way.  These units may also be used by non-impaired voters as well.

Q:         What special features does the Diebold AccuVote –TS offer?

A:         Using an intelligent voter card as the voter interface, the AccuVote-TS permits voters to view and cast their votes by touching target areas on an electronically generated ballot.  The units have the ability to put all ballot styles within a voting jurisdiction on each ballot station, (over 35,000 ballots have been stored on a single ballot station in a live election).  The terminal’s “magnify” feature enlarges the text for improved visibility by the voter. 

Q:         How about security features?  Can votes be lost?

A:         Votes are securely stored utilizing world-class encryption techniques on several flash memory devices, providing multiple system redundancy features.  The units also carry internal battery back up in case of a loss of power to the precinct.

Q:         With the new statewide system, how will absentee ballots be cast?

A:         Voters registered in all counties will receive, vote and return an optical scan ballot.  400 optical scan ballot tabulators will be deployed to every Georgia county.