• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

State of Mississippi Chooses Diebold Election Systems As Voting System Provider

Posted on: Tuesday, 12 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

MCKINNEY, Texas, July 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The State of Mississippi has contracted with Diebold Election Systems to purchase ADA accessible electronic voting systems for jurisdictions within the state that currently do not have voting systems that meet Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requirements. Mississippi is the most recent state to select Diebold Election Systems as its predominant elections system supplier. The contract calls for Diebold to provide up to 5,000 AccuVote(R) TSX touch-screen voting machines and technical support services for five years.

Diebold provides election systems statewide for Georgia, Alaska, most of Maryland and Arizona. Additionally, Diebold is in contract negotiations in Utah to implement a statewide touch screen voting system and in Alabama to implement a statewide voter registration system.

"These voting machines will greatly improve the accuracy and integrity of every election in our state," said Mississippi Secretary of State Eric Clark. "They are easy to use and are secure." An election system review committee, led by Secretary of State Clark and including local election officials and representatives of the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (ITS), conducted a very thorough analysis before selecting Diebold as their supplier. The first use of the new touch screen systems will be during the primary elections in June 2006.

Diebold has had a strong presence in the state of Mississippi for many years, as the company has manufactured more than 90 percent of the automated teller machines (ATMs) in use throughout the state. Secretary Clark added, "Diebold has accurately and securely kept up with Mississippians' money for years. They will do just as well keeping up with our votes."

"We are very proud to be selected by the State of Mississippi to provide its electorate with electronic voting technology that has effectively reduced over-voting and under-voting in many jurisdictions throughout the nation," said Thomas W. Swidarski, president, Diebold Election Systems. "The accurate and reliable performance of Diebold's voting systems and support network, already used in other large state-wide implementations, played a key role in Mississippi's decision."

Diebold's AccuVote-TSX touch-screen voting system provides market-leading accessibility and privacy features that meet the requirements of HAVA, enabling blind and physically challenged voters to make selections and cast their ballots in complete privacy, using one intuitive system interface. The size of the ballot text on the touch screen can be magnified to assist voters with limited vision.

Diebold Election Systems, Inc. is a wholly owned operating subsidiary of Diebold, Incorporated, a global leader in providing integrated self-service delivery systems and services. Diebold Election Systems provides high-quality voting technology to jurisdictions of all sizes, along with comprehensive service and support capability, and is committed to elections accuracy, security and integrity. For more information on Diebold Election Systems, visit the company's Web site at http://www.dieboldes.com/, or call 1-800-433-VOTE.

Diebold, Incorporated

CONTACT: Media, David Bear of Diebold Election Systems, Inc.,+1-800-433-8683, ext. 112, or dbear@pstrategies.com, or Mike Jacobsen ofDiebold, Incorporated, +1-330-490-3796, or jacobsm1@diebold.com, or Investors,John Kristoff of Diebold, Incorporated, +1-330-490-5900, orkristoj@diebold.com

Web site: http://www.diebold.com/http://www.dieboldes.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

More News in this Category