Jaco gets touch-screen voting machine deal

by Catherine Tymkiw

Jaco Electronics Inc. inked a deal with electronic voting machine provider Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. to make touch-screen voting machines as part of two new contracts in the Chicago area.

Shares of the Hauppauge, L.I., distributor of electronic components surged as much as 24.3%, to $4.60 on Wednesday.

Sequoia awarded the multimillion dollar order to Jaco partly because of an existing business relationship where Jaco had filled orders for voting machine sub-assembly components that were put together by third party. Jaco opened a new 20,000-square-foot wing at its Hauppauge headquarters in April, allowing it to assemble flat-panel displays in house.

“We are pleased that Jaco’s new integration center has the talent that now allows them to complete the entire design and manufacturing process, providing us with one-stop shopping for voting machines that meet our customers’ demanding specifications,” said Sequoia President Jack Blaine in a statement.

Jaco expects the order to attract more custom-design LCD customers, said company spokesman Robert Savacchio. The first 3,000 units under the contract with Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia are due to be shipped by the end of this year.

Chicago and the surrounding Cook County are replacing their punch card voting technology with Sequoia’s systems, which will comply with the Help America Vote Act by notifying voters of errors and giving them a chance to correct their ballot before it is cast.

Sequoia, which has been installing touch-screen voting systems since the 2000 presidential election, also awarded Jaco a separate contract to design and manufacture 10 “full face” voting machines comprising four, 19-inch touch-screen displays. Those machines will be offered in jurisdictions, like New York state, which require the complete ballot be displayed on a single page.

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