California county ditches Diebold e-voting machines

The Board of Supervisors for Solano County, Calif., decided on Tuesday to break with Diebold Election Systems and accept a contract with Election Systems and Software to provide electronic voting machines for the November presidential elections. Solano is one of four counties whose Diebold-made systems had been banned in April by an order from California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley.

The county has not paid Diebold for any election machines and plans to thoroughly test ES&S's systems before accepting the contract, said Ira Rosenthal, chief information officer and registrar of voters for Solano. Other counties have taken a different tack toward the November elections: Kern County, another of the four counties whose systems were banned, has joined a lawsuit against the secretary of state.