Abstract

A Republican Count?

The article investigates links between the largest ballot-counting corporation, Election Systems & Software, and the Republican party. About half of the company, is owned by the Omaha World-Herald Company, which publishes the city's conservative daily newspaper, and about a fourth is owned by the McCarthy Group, an Omaha investment fund that is identified with Republican causes. John Gottschalk, publisher of the World-Herald, recruited Chuck Hagel into American Information Systems (AIS), an Omaha-based vote-counting company. In 1995 Hagel resigned to run for the Senate from Nebraska, where AIS would be counting the votes in his election contest. Hagel's investment in the McCarthy Group is valued in his reports to the Senate at between $1 million and $5 million. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Michael McCarthy, the CEO of the McCarthy Group, and his wife gave $28,750 to Republicans, nothing to Democrats, in the past three election cycles.