Meh, sort of true You can connect to WiFi without a sim card without a problem. You can't connect to a cellular network without a Sim, as far as I am aware. Again, you're making it seem like there is a hardware requirement for this modem to be active, and there isn't. It just needs a program to call on it, a driver to control it, and a network to connect to, in the most simple terms.If the sim card isn't active and provisioned, it's functionally the same thing as the ethernet cable being unplugged in that you have no internet connection. If you go buy a cell phone and don't connect it to a service carrier you don't get a data connection. That cellphone still has a "wireless modem" in it, but it doesn't mean it actually has an active connection.
I just went and checked Domion's website, they seem to only sell one system for elections. There is no broad spectrum of similar, but differently marketed machines that do the same thing but with different features. They aren't LG, or Samsung cranking out 15 different types of phones that are using a similar chip set with different programing. They have one product, their election system, which has four vastly different components.
I do agree, it should have been stipulated in the bidding process that the machine shouldn't be able to be wirelessly connected. The thing is, if you're selling something as a secure voting system, why install a $150 chip for "future use" when you can skip the chip, and pitch it as a security benefit of being completely secure from wireless attacks or modifications?