the ExpressVote XL. Grassroots organizations
including Common Cause are fighting to
prevent their certification in New York State.
ES&S defends the machine. In a Dec. 12 filing in
a Pennsylvania lawsuit, company executive Dean
Baumer said the ExpressVote XL had never been
compromised and said breaches of the machine
“are a practical impossibility.”
ES&S lobbied hard in Pennsylvania for the
ExpressVote XL, though not always legally.
After ES&S won a $29 million contract in
Philadelphia last year in a hasty procurement,
that city’s controller did some digging. She
determined that ES&S’ vice president of finance
had failed to disclose, in a mandatory campaign
contribution form, activities of consultants who
spent more than $400,000, including making
campaign contributions to two commissioners
involved in awarding the contract. ES&S
agreed to pay a record $2.9 million penalty as a
result. It said the executive’s failure to disclose
was “inadvertent.”
The Philadelphia episode contradicts claims
by ES&S officials, including by CEO Tom
Burt in Jan. 8 testimony to a congressional
committee, that the company does not make
campaign contributions.
Public records show ES&S contributed $25,000
from 2014-2016 to the Republican State
Leadership Committee which seeks GOP control
of state legislatures.
ES&S has also paid for trips to Las Vegas of
an “advisory board” of top elections officials,
including from South Carolina, New York
City and Dallas County, Texas, according to