$1.2M to settle election machine dispute

HONOLULU — The Hawaii Attorney General’s Office is requesting $1.2 million to settle a 2008 protest filed over a contract for electronic voting machines.

Attorney General David Louie’s office says former Chief Election Officer Kevin Cronin violated state procurement code when he awarded a multi-term contract for voting equipment without conducting the required analysis of the proposals.

Cronin abruptly resigned at the end of 2009.

Hart InterCivic Inc. was awarded a $43.3 million contract for new electronic voting machines through the 2016 elections, with an option to extend to 2018. Another vendor submitted a competing bid of $18 million.

The settlement with competing vendor, Electric Systems & Software, was reached in February. The settlement sets aside $1.05 million to ES&S and $150,000 to Hart InterCivic.