Three state senators are looking into the allegations, though there is no official investigation.

On Monday, the commission announced its intent to give Election Systems & Software, a Nebraska-based company with more than 74,000 voting systems worldwide, a $32.4 million contract to take effect April 28.

Several competing companies have cried foul over the contract, according to Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia.

Andino is "trying to weed out the opposition to give the business to this one vendor," Knotts said.

"I'm hopping mad about it," said Scott Borchardt, president and CEO of South Carolina-based Palmetto Unilect, which bid $33 million.

"Our equipment has a better reputation. We would have provided 100 jobs for South Carolinians, and we would have kept that money in-state," he said. He attributed his bid's failure to Andino's "prior relationship with ES&S."

Borchardt said he would file a complaint with the state procurement officer next week.

For 2-1/2 years, Andino worked for Unisys, a company specializing in computer system integrations and server technology. In 2002, ES&S and Unisys teamed up to bid for Georgia's statewide voting system. The companies later formed an alliance to provide statewide voter registration systems nationwide.

Andino worked for Unisys during its partnership with ES&S in Georgia.

She denied a conflict because Unisys isn't involved in the South Carolina deal. She denied influencing the selection committee in ES&S' favor. Her accusers, she said, "need to see everything the committee did in making the decision."

Knotts said he's been looking into similar allegations at the Election Commission for more than a year, a time during which Andino was director, and he is convinced something is not right.

Knotts is one of three state senators, along with Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, and Sen. Greg Gregory, R-Lancaster, looking into the ES&S bid.

Will Folks, spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, said Sanford is aware of the allegations.

Along with worries about a conflict, the senators are concerned about the quality of ES&S equipment, the fact that an out-of-state company was given preference over an in-state company and the decision to go with one provider for the entire state.

In addition, Knotts and Gregory have asked Attorney General Henry McMaster for an opinion on the legality of forcing local election commissions to use one uniform system.

"If something goes wrong, we are stuck with this one vendor," Knotts said. "That's not a good position to be in."

Currently, the state has five electronic systems at work, as well as optical scans and punch cards. Andino said the decision to go with one statewide provider was made by the 26-member committee she served on.

"We've been criticized for not being able to provide the same level of service to all counties, which is a result of having so many different types of machines," Andino said. "Having one system will address that problem and will also do away with voter confusion when moving from one district to another."

The impetus for the wholesale change came from the 2000 presidential election, which was marred by the Florida recount.

In October 2002, President Bush signed the Help America Vote Act into law, allocating $3.9 billion to states and requiring they implement and maintain an interactive, centralized and uniform statewide computerized voter registration list by 2004. South Carolina is to receive $48 million in HAVA money.

The act was a bonanza for companies such as ES&S. But in the past year, the company has come under fire for machine problems in Indiana and Louisiana.

Knotts said he plans to continue looking into the matter.

"I'm going to keep the full-court press on," he said, to make sure "there were no underhanded deals going on."

Click here to return to story:
http://www.charleston.net/stories/041704/sta_17conflict.shtml