News

Diebold gets another touchscreen voting deal, in San Diego

November 21, 2002

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- Chads will be a thing of the past for San Diego voters come 2004, when the County of San Diego switches to a touch screen voting system, according to San Diego's KGTV.

Registrar of Voters Sally McPherson announced on Nov. 21 that the county intends to award a contract to Diebold Election Systems, a subsidiary of ATM manufacturer Diebold, for touchscreen voting equipment that will be used beginning with the 2004 presidential election.

Some 10,000 touchscreen machines will be in use at San Diego County's 1,600 polling places in March 2004, McPherson said. Absentee voters will use an optical scan ballot.

The new system will cost $25 million to $30 million, of which about $17 million will be reimbursed by the state, McPherson said. The county also expects to receive funding from the federal government.

Diebold is one of the largest makers of ATMs in the world, and acquired Global Election Systems in 2000, according to the county.

Alameda County in California recently hired Diebold, and used a touchscreen system in November.

The state of Georgia used more than 22,000 of Diebold's Accuvote-TS electronic touchscreen voting stations for the Nov. 5 elections. Diebold trained about 6,000 poll workers in Georgia before the election and supplied 190 field technicians, 160 county support technicians and a dozen regional support managers throughout nearly 3,000 precincts across Georgia, all for a cost of about $54 million. (See related stories Diebold declares Georgia touchscreen election a successand Diebold has Georgia on its mind in election).

Diebold reported voting-related revenue of $55.2 million in its third quarter, which helped compensate for a decrease in ATM sales in the quarter.