Premier Names First Board of Directors

ALLEN, Texas, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- As the next step forward in its revised corporate governance structure, Premier Election Solutions has named a new, independent board of directors to guide the realigned company. The board includes outside directors with extensive expertise in election administration and computer system security. In 2007, Premier announced measures that increased its operational independence from its corporate parent, Diebold, Incorporated, including the formation of a new board of directors.

Premier's new board includes: Sharon Priest, former Arkansas Secretary of State; M.H. (Mac) McMillan, co-founder and CEO of CynergisTek, Inc.; Dave Byrd, president of Premier Election Solutions; Sheila M. Rutt, vice president and chief human resources officer for Diebold; and Chad F. Hesse, corporate counsel and assistant secretary for Diebold.

"Forming an independent board of directors continues our focus and emphasis on providing the best election solutions for current and future customers," said Byrd. "Our new board, and especially our two new outside directors, will provide fresh insight and expertise that will enhance our leadership position and future growth.

"Premier has a strong reputation for customer service and innovative voting solutions, and this new operational structure will help us to communicate more effectively with the election community and help take our performance to a new level of excellence," Byrd added.

Sharon Priest

Sharon Priest currently serves as executive director for the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, an economic redevelopment organization in Little Rock, Arkansas. Ms. Priest served two terms as Arkansas' Secretary of State from 1994 to 2003, the first Arkansas woman elected to that post. In that position, she successfully implemented the National Voter Registration Act in Arkansas, and advanced and supported 75 counties in converting to electronic record keeping and reporting. A recognized leader in election administration, Ms. Priest formerly co-chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Interoperability of Voter Registration Databases and served as a member of the Carter Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform. She is a former president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, where she initiated and chaired the Association's Election Reform Task Force.

M.H. (Mac) McMillan

M.H. (Mac) McMillan is co-founder and CEO of CynergisTek, Inc., an information security solutions firm based in Austin, Texas. McMillan brings more than 25 years of experience in managing security programs in both the government and private sectors. He has developed security services for the financial, healthcare, real estate, insurance and government sectors, and developed and taught risk assessment and mitigation to a variety of audiences. He has been active in contributing to industry-based initiatives to promote compliance with security standards such as HIPAA and REALTOR Secure. Among other degrees, McMillan holds a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and was awarded Department of Defense Silver and Gold Medals for Exceptional Meritorious Service. Mr. McMillan also served for more than 20 years as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Dave Byrd

As President of Premier Election Solutions, Dave Byrd leads the Allen, Texas-based company and reports directly to the newly formed board of directors. Byrd joined the company in 2004. A Certified Public Accountant, Mr. Byrd has held accounting and finance posts at Diebold, Incorporated and with Electronic Data Services Corporation. He earned a Master's of Science degree in Management, Information Systems from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Sheila M. Rutt

Sheila M. Rutt became vice president, chief human resources officer for Diebold in 2005. She is responsible for managing human resources initiatives across the company, providing strategic leadership for domestic and international personnel programs. She is also a Diebold corporate officer, having held various management and corporate leadership positions with the company since joining in 2000. Ms. Rutt holds master's and doctorate degrees in industrial and organizational psychology from The University of Akron.

Chad F. Hesse

Chad F. Hesse is corporate counsel and assistant secretary for Diebold. He works closely with the Diebold board of directors, has responsibility for the company's periodic securities filings, and also manages mergers and acquisitions for the company. He joined Diebold in 2004. He was formerly a Clerk for The Honorable Judge Ishmael A. Meyers, Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands. Prior to joining Diebold, Hesse was an associate in the corporate and securities practice group of Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP in Cleveland, Ohio.

Premier Election Solutions offers the most comprehensive set of voting systems available today, providing paper-based optical scan technology, touch- screen systems with voter-verifiable paper audit trail printers and effective solutions for people with vision and physical disabilities.

Today, more than 25,000 optical scan units and more than 126,000 touch- screen voting terminals are deployed by Premier customers. Premier offers the AutoMARK(TM) paper optical scan ballot ADA solution that enables blind and physically challenged voters to use an optical scan ballot to make their candidate selections. Premier customers use more than 16,000 ExpressPoll electronic poll books which can decrease voter validation times by up to 65 percent, reducing voter waiting lines at precinct locations.

Premier recently introduced a number of market-leading products that include a new AccuVote-OSX optical scan unit, and the patented VoteRemote absentee system offering automated signature verification for incoming absentee ballot envelopes. Premier's high-speed optical scanner provides digital ballot scanning and can individually separate paper ballots that contain errors such as blank ballots, over-votes, under-votes, etc., expediting the ballot scanning process.

About Premier Election Solutions

Premier Election Solutions, Inc. is headquartered in Allen, Texas, and has offices and personnel throughout the United States and in Canada. Premier Election Solutions provides high-quality voting technology to jurisdictions of all sizes, along with comprehensive service and support capability, and is committed to elections accuracy, security and integrity. For more information on Premier Election Solutions, visit the company's Website at www.premierelections.com, or call 1-800-433-VOTE.