by Election Systems & Software Inc. (ES&S) was not something that immediately captured headlines. But what the deal lacked in purchase price, it made up for in controversy, because the merger left ES&S in control of nearly 70% of the nation’s voting machines market.

 

ES&S, the nation’s top seller of voting machines, wanted to buy No. 2 competitor Premier, a subsidiary of Diebold Inc. This attracted the attention of anti-trust lawyers in the U.S. Department of Justice. After several months of reviewing the deal, the government agreed to sanction it—as long as ES&S agreed to sell off its newest voting system (Assure 1.2) to another competitor, probably Hart InterCivic Inc.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Justice Dept. Probes Voting Machine Merger as Midterm Elections Loom and Questions Multiply (by Pete Yost, Associated Press)

Voting-Machine Deal to Be Cleared by U.S. (by Thomas Catan, Wall Street Journal)