VoteTrustUSA Calls For Inquiry into Sequoia Ownership

[Wilms]

VoteTrustUSA Calls For Inquiry into Sequoia Ownership

Election Watchdog Group backs Congressional call for Inquiry into Voting Machine Company’s Foreign Ownership

Third Largest Voting Machine Producer may be tied to Venezuelan Government; Citizens’ Group, Congresswoman call for inquiry

By VoteTrustUSA

May 31, 2006

Citing national security concerns, the non-profit public integrity group VoteTrustUSA.org voiced support for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s (pictured at right) call to investigate the ownership of Sequoia Voting Systems. A leading producer of computerized voting systems used in the U.S., Sequoia was purchased by the Venezuelan-owned Smartmatic International last year. In 2004, Smartmatic partnered with Bizta, a company owned partially by the Venezuelan Government of Hugo Chavez.

In the March Chicago primary, over a dozen Venezuelan nationals were present in the tabulation room, to ‘support’ the computation of the results according to testimony of Jack Blaine, Smartmatic President and CEO at a recent Chicago City Council hearing.

“Control of our election system must be considered a national security issue. The American voter deserves to know who is programming the software that will count their votes,” said Joan Krawitz, Executive Director of VoteTrustUSA.org. “The manufacturers of e-voting systems claim the software code as their ‘proprietary intellectual property’, preventing any independent examination. It is intolerable that a foreign-owned company with possible ties to a foreign government should be able to purchase that kind of power over our electoral system without any government oversight or investigation.”

snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1328&Itemid=51

[Nevernose]

1. Normally I side w/ Chavez, but, like the ports deal

Call me a protectionist if you want to, but some things should just remain American.

Of course, the ULTIMATE problem here isn't the manufacturer of the machines, it's the lack of transparency and the "proprietary intellectual property" that makes it impossible for anyone to verify accurate what's actually happening, not to mention the graft and corruption at all levels of government.

[kaygore]

2. Better Chavez than those damn Republican whores

[Peace Patriot]

3. The Republican Party is a foreign country, in my opinion--and THEY own

and control Diebold and ES&S who, together, "tabulated" 80% of our nation's votes in 2004, using 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls.

Diebold and ES&S are brethren corporations, literally run by two brothers, Tod and Bob Urosevich. Until recently, Diebold's CEO was Wally O'Dell, a Bush/Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer" like Enron's Ken Lay) who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush/Cheney in 2004." ES&S is a spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things).

Sequoia is the third big player, and employs Republican politicians to peddle its machines (former Repub Calif Sec of State Bill Jones and his chief aide, Alfie Charles), but Sequoia currently does not represent nearly the grave threat to our democracy that Diebold and ES&S do. However, Sequoia and all of these election theft corporations, and the entire principle of "trade secret" vote tabulation and private corporate control over our elections, needs to be unceremoniously expelled from our election system NOW.

Sequoia ran Venezuela's elections but with OPEN SOURCE CODE. Think about THAT! The Venezuelans are no fools! And what does that make US?

Open source code means that anyone may review how the votes are being counted. (Venezuela also had fingerprint ID.) "Trade secret," proprietary source code means that NO ONE--not even our secretaries of state-may review how the votes are being counted.

And all you have to do is look at the RESULT of open source code vs. "trade secret," Bushite-controlled source code, to know how important the code is:

Open source code/TRANSPARENT elections = good government, of the people, by the people, for the people.

Trade secret code/NON-TRANSPARENT elections = the Bush junta (mass murder, torture, spying, lying, grand theft by the super-rich).

It's a no-brainer.

------------------------------------

So, if Sequoia can do open source code in Venezuela, why, do you think, Tom Delay and Bob Ney (abetted by Christopher Dodd) permitted "trade secret," proprietary vote tabulation HERE, in their 2002 so-called "Help America Vote Act"?

If they'd wanted TRANSPARENT elections here, they could have had them. Why didn't they?

That, too, is a no-brainer.

------------------------------------

Regarding hope, re-enfranchisement and re-empowerment of the people and the '06 elections:

It's not going to be easy to get our democracy back. We cannot put all our hope in one election--'06--which is still run on "trade secret," proprietary programming code with virtually no audit/recount controls. We need to MONITOR the coming elections closely, and build the case against these machines, and then MAKE THE CASE in every state/county venue in the country. The next few years is our window of opportunity to do this--to restore transparent elections and save our country--while power over election systems still resides at the local/state level. The Bushite fascists are grabbing power and will likely try to grab this power as well, and already have done so, to a certain extent. But state/local jurisdictions still have the right to refuse these election theft machines, and return to paper ballots. While we have this right, we need to pressure local/state venues and DEMAND transparency. We also need to drum up massive turnout (massive turnout CAN overcome the machine advantage to Bushites) and promote alternative voting methods, such as Absentee Ballot voting. Absentee ballot voting is not the full answer, by any means, but it is, a) a protest against the machines--if enough people do it (and many are), the machines will be obsolete and then we can work to get rid of the central electronic tabulators; and b) it does provide a tangible, countable ballot, to help investigators, and in case of recounts.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

5. Just how many countries have had a piece of the US election via Sequoia?

Remember this, Peace Patriot?

Oct 29, 03: http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,61014,00.html
As of May 2002, Sequoia was purchased by Great Britain's De La Rue from Ireland's Jefferson Smurfit Group, who retain a 15% share. Smurfit was just bought by Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity investment firm. De La Rue owns 20% of the Great Britain's national lottery...The British-owned company's corporate parent is private equity firm Madison Dearborn -- a partner of the Carlyle Group, where George Bush I makes millions trolling the world for war pork, privatizations and sweetheart deals with government insiders.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

4. Sequoia has a long history of criminal activity

From my vast archived collection from November 2004 :shrug:

http://www.ballotintegrity.org/DCForumID1/193.html

"(In respect to Sequoia there is) clear and convincing evidence that the company has been run, perhaps for decades, as a Continuing Criminal Enterprise specializing in blatant and widespread bribery of public officials, with numerous felony convictions, Mob ties, and a history replete with stories of threats, coercion..."

Sample cases -
1) Sequoia attempted bribery at a luncheon hosted by Salvatore Reale, a Gambino underboss who later pled guilty to racketeering, New York City

2) Company’s founder, Lloyd A. Dixon Jr. indicted by federal grand jury for bribing Buffalo election officials

3) Company fined nearly $50,000 for bribing Texas and Arkansas officials

4) Next owner of Sequoia Pacific, financier Louis Wolfson became convicted of bribing the only Supreme Court Justice ever forced to resign in disgrace

5) Louisiana’s Commissioner of Elections Jerry Fowler convicted of taking as much as ten million dollars over a period of a decade from Sequoia’s Southeast Representative, a man named Pasquale "Rocco" Ricci, from New Jersey.

6) US Attorneys refused or unable to "confirm or deny" if Ricci was connected to organised crime.
~~~~~~~~~~

Official action - Allegations of voting irregularities by Republican Jenkins led to a year-long investigation. The probe quickly came across evidence of massive bribery, which became the focus of the investigation that followed, leading to charges that an election officer (Fowler) had spent $8.6 million in state money on "worthless" election equipment, and taken kickbacks from voting machine contractors working for Sequoia Pacific, in a scheme engineered by that company's executives. Fowler sentenced to five years in prison. Media did not mention the name of the company on whose behalf he was being bribed, Sequoia Pacific.