Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into how the New York City's Board of Elections awarded a $50 to $70 million contract for optical voting machines.
Two sources said US Attorney Preet Bharara has served subpoenas to determine if there was anything irregular in the deal landed by Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb., one of the leading companies in the industry. The subpoenas were sent "all over the place," a source said. Another source said Bharara began focusing on the voting-machine contract after indicting Anthony Mangone, a politically connected lawyer, for allegedly bribing a former Yonkers City Councilwoman to switch her vote on two development projects. Mangone, who has ties to the Queens Republican Party, was one of several lobbyists hired by ES&S. He was arrested Jan. 6 -- the day after the city's 10-member Board of Elections selected the company in a 6-1 vote over Dominion Voting of Toronto, which employed its own lobbyists. The dissenting vote was cast by Fred Umane, the Manhattan Republican commissioner. Two commissioners abstained and one was absent. Records show the competition between the two voting companies was tight.
Evaluators at the Board of Elections, grading everything from software security to poll-worker training, gave ES&S 3,417 points. Dominion received 3,395 --a difference of one-third of 1 percent.
I will watch this closer in the future, as I picked the ES&S system on its capabilities in the beginning of the selection process, as the representative of the NYC Independence Party.
Michael H. Drucker
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