Electronic voting in the United States could become reliant upon a single supplier of machines if a merger of the two leading companies is allowed to go through. Election Systems & Software (ES&S), which controls about 50% of the electronic voting market, has purchased Diebold’s electronic voting unit, Premier Election Solutions, which controls a third of the market.

This consolidation has both politicians and industry competitors worried, leading to a lawsuit by Hart InterCivic, which manufactures voting machines. Hart InterCivic has asked a federal court to block the merger on grounds that it violates antitrust laws. Meanwhile, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) has asked the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division to review the deal, citing a 2003 Congressional Research Service report that advised having a diverse voting machine market in order to reduce the threat of election fraud.
                                                                                                                                                       -Noel Brinkerhoff

Monopoly Looms on Electronic Voting (by Lisa Pease, Consortium News)
Antitrust Concerns Swirl Around Sale of Diebold Voting Machines (by Kim Zetter, Wired)
Hart Intercivic Inc. v. Deibold and Election Systems & Software (U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware) (PDF)