A few months before Elections Supervisor Bill Cowles’ retirement, Orange County commissioners signed off on buying$3.5 million in voting equipment from Election Systems & Software with little discussion.
But behind the scenes, county purchasing officials devoted much more scrutiny to the deal that Cowles had supported, according to emails and records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
One issue that caught their attention: Cowles’ son, Nick Cowles, was working in Florida for ES&S, the vendor poised to snag the no-bid contract.
Cowles, a Democrat, disclosed the connection to county officials, and ES&S told them in a written response to questions that Nick Cowles was not assigned to Orange County, records show.
Now out of office, Cowles,who served more than 30 years as elections chief, defended how he handled the situation. He said his son’s employment played no role in his decision to retire with about a year left on his term.
“The county purchasing department fully vetted that issue with ES&S,” Cowles said, adding that some of the replaced equipment dated back to 2008. “He is not a salesman. He had nothing to do with the sale.”
But Dan Helm, a Democratic candidate to succeed Cowles as supervisor, said he thinks Cowles should have been more forthcoming about therelationship between his office and ES&S, particularly when election officials are under the microscope amid largely Donald Trump-inspired and unsubstantiated allegations of large-scale voter fraud.
ES&S had a seemingly friendly face in Bill Cowles’ office, too. A top-ranking employee landed her job in Orange County, despite an ethics scandal stemming from undisclosed ES&S-funded trips she took to a luxurious Las Vegas hotel and the company’s Nebraska headquarters during her previous elections job in Pennsylvania.
Helm also questioned the purchase of millions of dollars of equipment in July last year, which means Cowles’ successor will be locked into using those machines for years. It didn’t appear the public was aware of the family connection, he said.
“The optics don’t look good,” Helm said. “Now more than ever, the optics need to look good.”
Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore said she wasn’ttold of Nick Cowles’ employment with ES&S, although she doesn’t think it would have changed how she voted on the contract.
“Just out of an abundance of caution,” said Moore, who also served on the county’s canvassing board, which oversees important parts of elections.
Son’s tenure with ES&S
Nick Cowles joined ES&S as a ballot management product specialist and Florida account manager in January 2018, according to information the company provided to Orange County officials.
He was one of nineES&S employees dedicated to supporting Florida accounts, but Orange was not part of his assigned territory, Katina Granger, an ES&S spokeswoman, said in an email.
Nick Cowles’ only involvement with the Orange County elections office entailed serving as a last-minute replacement for one software training session, his father said.
The younger Cowles, who did not respond to a request seeking comment, moved to a product manager role in April. Granger said the job involves working with developers to guide the direction of future products.
Bill Cowles’ retirement on Jan. 31 puzzled some Democrats because it opened the door for GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis to name a replacement to fill the remainder of his term and oversee the 2024 presidential election. The governor appointed Glen Gilzean, one of his political allies who had led DeSantis’ Disney World oversight district.
Cowles, 70, said he stepped down after more than three decades of public service because he wanted to move to Brevard County, where he could spend more time with his family. Property records show he bought a home in Indian Harbour Beach next to his son, Nick.
The father-son connection went largely unnoticed by the public. It was raised in a sworn statement in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former election worker who alleged he was terminated for raising concerns about security issues in the office. A conservative website called West Orlando News also mentioned the relationship in a November 2022 post, before the sale.
Legally, Bill Cowles likely had no obligation to recuse himself from participating in the purchase – unless his son had a direct ownership stake in ES&S, said Caroline Klancke, a former lawyer for the Florida Commission on Ethics and director of the Florida Ethics Institute.
Records show one top Orange County official wondered whether the contract for voting equipment should be bid competitively.
Lisa Snead, assistant county administrator, wrote that Bill Cowles had disclosed to her that his son worked for ES&S but wasn’t assigned to Orange County and didn’t receive sales commissions, according to an email obtained through a public records request.
“[A]s you always do and I have no doubt will be doing for this one, please make sure we do this procurement competitively to ensure the County is protected and there is no perception of wrongdoing,” she wrote, adding that a local blogger had raised an issue about the relationship.
County officials ultimately didn’t put the project out for bid. But they did some due diligence.
They asked for the age of Orange County’s voting machines compared with other Florida counties and whether existing machines with any problems in the 2020 elections had been serviced and repaired. They also wanted ES&S to address Nick Cowles’ employment with the company.
In a response initially stamped “confidential” by ES&S, the company wrote that Nick Cowles was not assigned to Orange County. That confidential tag was removed after Cowles’ office contacted ES&S and relayed the county’s concerns about the label, according to an email.
“None of the correspondence or documentation submitted to the County regarding the upgrading of the ES&S voting machines is regarded as confidential,” Cowles wrote to the county’s purchasing department
It appears the county’s equipment was due for an upgrade, and election offices typically stick with their preferred vendors, because they fear what could happen if they switch to an unfamiliar system, said Mark Lindeman, policy and strategy director for Verified Voting, a nonprofit that advocates for paper voting records.
Choices are also limited with only two vendors certified to supply voting machines in Florida.
“If you’ve been dealing with ES&S … for years and years, you have reason to expect that even if you buy new systems from them, things will continue to work much the way they have,” Lindeman said. “If you switch to another vendor, it’s like starting over.”
County officials determined the contract met the criteria for a sole-source purchase because of proprietary software and hardware only offered by ES&S.
ES&S influence
ES&S has come under fire for tactics it has used to cement relationships with election officials who play roles in awarding millions of dollars in contracts to the company.
A 2018 McClatchy DC investigation revealed ES&S maintained an advisory board of government officials that met twice a year for company-sponsored conferences.
One of those advisory board members, Marisa Crispell, landed a job in Orange County’s election office in October 2019, despite an ethics scandal stemming from her previous elections job in Pennsylvania.
Ethics investigators in Pennsylvania determined she took two undisclosed trips on ES&S’ dime in 2017 to attend advisory board meetings while advocating for buying about $325,000 in electronic poll books from the company.
ES&S ended up winning a bid over four competitors, despite having the highest quote, according to the ethics investigation. The company’s price was $34,000 more than the next highest bid.
On Oct. 24, 2019, Crispell started a job in the Orange elections office, just over a month after she resigned her position in Pennsylvania, according to the ethics report.
She joined as deputy director of voter services and quickly rose through the ranks, getting a promotion three months later and another in 2021 to become director of election administration.
As she climbed the ladder in the Orange County elections office, ethics investigators in Pennsylvania continued their work. She reached a deal with the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission in June 2020 and agreed to pay $3,500 to the state and another $500 to cover the investigation’s cost.
Asked about her hiring, Cowles said, “Those issues were not related to Florida. Marisa Crispell no longer works in Orange County’s elections office.”
In April, Crispell left her job in Orange County for one in Pinellas County’s elections office, according to an announcement.
Crispell was hired as an elections administrator, said Dustin Chase, deputy election supervisor. He said he was unaware of any of the issues from her employment in Pennsylvania, but Crispell hasn’t served in any advisory capacity with ES&S since she has worked in Florida.
An agency policy precludes Crispell from speaking to the news media, he said.
ES&S discontinued the advisory board in 2018, said Granger, the company spokeswoman.
“ES&S consistently operates with the highest ethical standards, participating in competitive procurement processes and earning its business through top-rated equipment and service,” she said.
ES&S dominates Florida market
Competition is limited when it comes to the market for voting equipment, Lindeman said.
“A handful of vendors control most of the market,” he said. “They’re privately held. They don’t have to disclose much information, and they don’t.”
Forty-nine of Florida’s 67 counties use equipment from ES&S, the nation’s dominant supplier. The remaining counties use Dominion Voting Systems, the other vendor authorized to do business in Florida.
Orange’s purchase included $2.3 million for 380 DS300 ballot scanners and $1.1 million for eight DS950 high-speed tabulators. Officials agreed to pay an additional $163,520 in annual post-warranty maintenance fees, according to the purchase order.
The new equipment replaced ES&S DS200 optical scanners used since 2008, according to Verified Voting’s database. The office’s DS850 tabulators had been used since 2016, according to the database.
Cowles said it was important to get the new equipment for trial runs in the elections ahead of the November 2024 presidential vote.
“The timing was right,” he said. “It is a presidential year. With larger voter rolls, we thought it was necessary to have additional equipment.”
Orlando Sentinel staff writer Stephen Hudak contributed to this report.
