In May 2002, Charles resigned from the panel to avoid potential conflicts. After talking to at least one other election company, he said, he was hired as a Sequoia vice president that August.
"It is a position that assists the company in identifying strategies for positioning in the market and long-term trends in the industry," he said, declining to disclose his salary.
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.
After the Santa Clara County elections staff ranked Sequoia first in its evaluation of election systems, Charles appeared before county supervisors and touted his experience while vowing to instill voter confidence in new electronic equipment.
"I recently spent seven years as assistant secretary of state for California, developing the voter outreach projects that helped California set the national standard," he said. An $18.9-million contract was signed in April.
Charles defends the use of his state credentials in his new job. "It's no different than anyone in the election business," he said. "You learn from your experience."
Charles said that the company recently also hired Waldeep Singh, who worked in the state elections office several years ago and more recently handled business filings there. Kathryn Ferguson, a former Santa Clara County registrar, also was hired by the company.
Other voting system companies use political figures as lobbyists. For example, former state assemblyman and Sacramento Mayor Phil Eisenberg contacted Sacramento County supervisors last year on behalf of Election Systems & Software. And former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu later contacted San Bernardino County supervisors on behalf of Diebold Election Systems.
But elections experts say that Jones has exceptionally high name recognition, credibility and access among elections officials in California and elsewhere.
Last spring, after the San Bernardino County elections staff gave top marks to Sequoia's system, Jones lobbied county supervisors before they gave final approval to an $18.8-million contract.
Recently, Jones called Conny B. McCormack, Los Angeles County's registrar, to make an appointment to discuss the county's purchase of as much as $100-million worth of electronic voting equipment.
But McCormack still swears by the reliability of the punch-card system, which Jones banned. As secretary of state, "we heard him extolling the virtues of touch screens," she said. "And now he's working for a touch-screen company."
