"There can be no more important duty in a representative democracy than to conduct elections, and it is a travesty to see that duty so flagrantly undermined by the fraudulent conduct of an election systems vendor."

That's the statement released today by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against voting machines manufacturer Election Systems & Software. The legal action comes less than a day after a lawsuit against ES&S was filed by Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

The San Francisco case touches on similar issues as the state lawsuit-- namely, accusations that last year ES&S shipped out to five California counties voting machines that had not yet been certified by state elections officials. SF received more of the machines in dispute -- 565 -- than any of the other counties in question.

Local officials in San Francisco borrowed machines from Contra Costa County for their November 6 election, and have demanded ES&S make good on the situation... a situation the lawsuit says was never resolved.

In a written statement, the Omaha-based ES&S calls the claims in the lawsuit both "inflated" and "distorted." It goes on to say that "contrary to the allegations included in the lawsuit, we have met our contractual obligations to San Francisco" (the entire statement is here).

As they say, the story... both in San Francisco and statewide... is developing.