Electronic Systems and Software is appealing a decision by the Office of Elections after its protest of a voting machine contract was denied last week. The $43.4 million contract, which covers five elections cycles with an option for a sixth, was awarded to Texas based Hart Intercivic in January.

In its appeal ES&S claims it could have provided the same level of service to the state at $18.1 million, less than half the cost of the Hart contract.

“The ES&S proposal provided current technology that meets all of the current requirements and upgrades as the contract progresses,” said Terry Thomason, a Honolulu attorney representing the Nebraska based company. “ES&S was evaluated as technically acceptable and number two among the competitors,” he added.

Thomason wants an administrative hearing judge to decide whether ES&S should be awarded the contract after claiming the Office of Elections failed to perform a cost analysis of Hart’s offer.

Elections Chief Kevin Cronin refused to comment on the company’s appeal while the issue awaits a ruling. Instead he referred Khon2 to his letter dated March 3, 2008 informing ES&S that its protest had been denied.

In the letter Cronin said ES&S failed to object to the use of price and other factors in the “request for proposal” that accounted for 25% of the points a company could have received from a seven member evaluation committee.

Cronin wrote the Office of Elections was not required to perform a cost analysis of Hart’s offer since the point system used to determine the winning company took cost into account. However ES&S claims the point system is not a true cost analysis of the Hart contract offer.

“You can't do cost analysis until somebody puts in a price,” said an incredulous Thomason. “The public has a right to know,” he added, “how much is (the Office of Elections) paying in direct labor costs and how much they're paying in profit.”

The cost of the Hart contract has also grabbed the attention of Safe Vote Hawaii, a group that successfully lobbied lawmakers in 1995 to require a paper trail with all electronic voting equipment.

“We do have concerns about the price,” said spokesman Bart Dame. “You have two competitive vendors (and) one of them is asking about three times as much as the other vendor who frankly has more experience running elections. We think the public should look at that.”

Safe Vote Hawaii is also concerned about the length of the Hart contract, saying it won’t allow the state to bid on more competitive proposals after the 2008 election cycle. The state’s contract with Hart runs through December of 2016, with an option for the 2018 election cycle. “There might be a better system available for us and we're locked into Hart,” said Dame.

Andrew may be reached at apereira@khon2.com or ph. 591-4263.