In Los Angeles, Robert Stern of the Center for Governmental Studies, said, "The companies have to recognize that the government is not like business, and you don't wine and dine government officials.
"We need to have confidence in government, and the confidence is already low."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday November 13, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 31 words Type of Material: Correction
Voting machines -- An article in Monday's Section A about voting machine companies hiring former government officials misspelled the surname of former Sacramento mayor and state Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg as Eisenberg.
Fifty-four of California's 58 counties will have to install at least one touch-screen voting machine per polling place by 2006 to accommodate disabled voters. (Four counties already have touch-screen machines.) And six counties, including Los Angeles, which has more than 4 million registered voters, are racing to meet a court-imposed deadline to replace punch-card systems by the March presidential primary.
Huge sums will be available. Proposition 41 was approved by voters last year; it provides $200 million to upgrade election systems. Counties are expected to pick up a third of the cost of such an upgrade. And the state is seeking $127 million more through the federal Help America Vote Act.
Jones, a family farmer from Fresno and a potential Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, was a central figure in the state's push toward revamping voting systems during his eight years as elections chief. He decertified punch-card machines in 2001, and the next year -- along with then-Assemblyman Kevin Shelley, who is now secretary of state -- co-sponsored the proposition that raised money for new machines.
Jones said in an interview that he took the actions to provide California with a means of replacing dinosaur voting systems doomed by lawsuits and court rulings, not to benefit elections companies.
He denied that his actions created an appearance of conflict, saying that there had been no money for new systems, "and counties could not deal with it themselves."
As his term wound down last year, Jones sought the GOP gubernatorial nomination but lost. He returned to private life in January and several months later began part-time consulting for Sequoia; he wouldn't say how much he is paid. He also serves on Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition team.
Before Jones left office, an assistant secretary, Alfie Charles, began setting his sights on his own next job.
Charles, who was Jones' spokesman, had worked on communications for the Proposition 41 drive, which was financed almost entirely with $100,000 from Sequoia and $50,000 from another vendor, Election Systems & Software. He had also sat on the panel that recommended to Jones which election machines could be sold in California.
