Louisiana elections chief slams senator over voting machines

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin lashed out Friday against the head of the Louisiana Senate's elections oversight committee after she helped to sink Ardoin's voting machine replacement work, escalating an intraparty feud that could affect any future search for new voting technology.

Ardoin accused his fellow Republican, Sen. Sharon Hewitt, of irresponsibly disparaging his voting machine search efforts and damaging his agency's reputation for running elections.

“You participated in a politically motivated ruse and launched an unfounded assault on an agency that has the highest requirements for precision during early and election day voting in the state of Louisiana,” Ardoin wrote in a letter to Hewitt.

The letter comes two days after the secretary of state scrapped his search for a company to replace 10,000 voting machines across Louisiana, under criticism from Hewitt, other Republicans and possible bidders about the bid solicitation process. Hewitt released a letter calling on Ardoin to jettison the search, saying he rushed into the process too quickly and without public input and legislative oversight.

But rather than offering a statement seeking to move past the disagreement, Ardoin appeared to escalate it Friday with his response.

The dispute could have future ripples across the legislative session and Ardoin's plans to eventually redo the voting machine replacement work, a contract estimated to be worth up to $100 million. Hewitt is leader of the Senate Republicans and chairs the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee that oversees legislation affecting elections and Ardoin's office.

The voting machine replacement effort faced intense scrutiny, coming after a previous 2018 search for a new voting system fell apart amid allegations of improper bid handling and amid a national...