Graphic: Making the grade

Most Pinellas County commissioners are ready to buy voting machines tonight from Sequoia Voting Systems, but not from the controversial company executive who was indicted in a Louisiana kickbacks scheme.

That person is out of the picture.

Phil Foster won't manage the installation of Pinellas County's voting machines or any other Florida accounts, said Kathryn Ferguson, spokeswoman for the California-based company.

"Phil, with the company's complete concurrence, has withdrawn himself from participating in the Florida accounts," Ferguson said.

Sequoia's CEO, Peter Cosgrove, will come before commissioners tonight hoping to regain the commission's trust. He'll bring Mike Frontera, the company's vice president of operations, who will be introduced as the prospective new project manager for Pinellas.

Foster, who faces money-laundering conspiracy charges, hasn't been convicted and says he's innocent. But in Pinellas, he and Sequoia don't have much choice, given the opinions of commissioners.

"I'm comfortable separating Sequoia's technology from Mr. Foster's problems as an individual," said Commissioner Ken Welch. "But we definitely need another project manager."

Five commissioners said Monday that they plan to vote for Sequoia. But the scars of the last-minute revelation are still there.

"I would say Sequoia is certainly the front-runner," said Commissioner Bob Stewart. "Unless there's something that comes up tomorrow that pushes them aside. I don't know what that would be."

Commissioner Barbara Sheen Todd said state legislators' deadline of next September doesn't give the state's 41 counties with outmoded voting systems long enough to replace them.

"I don't think counties throughout Florida should have ever been put in this position," she said. "You're darned if you do and darned if you don't. It's not a very good situation to be in, to be forced to make a decision . . . with a tight window of time and no money."

A sixth commissioner, John Morroni, said Monday he's undecided, but leaning toward the second-ranked company, Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software.

"I want to vote for a company that doesn't have any black clouds hanging over it," he said.

The seventh, Commissioner Karen Seel, said she plans to abstain because her mother has stock in a company owned by Jefferson Smurfit Group, the company which owns Sequoia.

Gay Lancaster, interim county administrator, has recommended Sequoia. It also was the top choice of a citizens' committee that reviewed five competing proposals. ES&S was the committee's second choice.

The vote originally was set for Oct. 30 but was delayed after news of Foster's indictment became public. If commissioners vote to go ahead, they would give county staffers authority to negotiate a contract. They would vote again on the final contract.

For Sequoia, more than Pinellas' business is at stake. Its chief rival, ES&S, already has sold electronic touch-screen machines to 10 Florida counties and optical scanners to seven more. The company's touch-screen sales alone mean that 2.3-million people, more than one in four Florida voters, will vote on ES&S touch screens next year.

Sequoia has sold touch screens to two other counties, Palm Beach and Indian River -- and Indian River canceled its contract two weeks ago after learning about Foster. Cosgrove plans to visit commissioners there this morning. The state's top election systems expert, Paul Craft, also will be there to answer questions about how his office certifies voting equipment for use in Florida. Indian River may decide today whether to stick with Sequoia or start negotiations with another company.

Indian River's elections supervisor, Kay Clem, said she still prefers Sequoia. Like the members of the Pinellas committee, Clem said Sequoia's system is easier to use because voters activate each machine with an electronic "smart card." With ES&S, poll workers must activate the machine for each voter by inserting an electronic cartridge.

In Hillsborough, Elections Supervisor Pam Iorio is not even considering ES&S for the same reason. The county will choose between Sequoia and Global Election Systems, which also uses smart cards.

But ES&S has won the biggest prize so far in the touch-screen sweepstakes: Broward County, which now has 921,000 voters, more than any other county, and intends to spend more than $15-million on 6,000 units.

Broward said ES&S' equipment suited its needs better. An analysis of the firms' proposals by county staffers said Sequoia posed logistical problems because of the weight of its units and other obstacles.

Broward commissioners resumed negotiating a contract price with ES&S on Monday, over the vehement opposition of Election Supervisor Miriam Oliphant and consultant Chris Hood. They favored Global's proposal.

In Pinellas, Seel said she didn't realize the Smurfit conflict until Sunday night, when she worked on her mother's financial records and then reviewed the voting equipment package. County attorneys advised her to abstain unless the state Ethics Commission clears her to vote.

"I don't want any cloud or any question," Seel said. "I prefer to be very proactive up front and say I don't feel comfortable."

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