Host: He is the CEO of the company Smartmatic Antonio Mujica, I talked to him earlier about this topic, the technology of the elections of Venezuela. Listen in:

Host: Well, from the beginning. Thank you so much for the interview. The topic of the election process has raised a lot of conspiracy theories, in the possibility of fraud or no fraud. You are the provider of the platform and who administers the software for this, not only in Venezuela but in other parts of the world. How can we make people understand that you cannot change a vote through this system and through your platform?

CEO: Very well, there are some elements that we have to keep in consideration. First let me say that the technology that we have developed is unique in the world, and that is why we have become the biggest company in the world for election technology in less than 8 years. The reason is due to the robust and entrusted system. The entrusted system has two parts. One is that it is impossible or practically impossible to change results. And if for any reason there was a way results were changed it would be obvious. Due to that every phase of the system, every aspect, is audited. The system is what we call, “tamper evident” if there was any type of attack. Everyone, and when I say everyone, I mean, political parties, electoral clerks, the watchers, the witnesses, everyone would know that there was some sort of attack to the system. Because the system makes it evident.

Host: That attack is detected by your company?

CEO: This is detected by the system itself, and it informs everyone who interacts with the system in different ways. The voter when voting, or the witness that forms part of the process in the system, or to the political parties that are auditing every part of the process. From the moment of voting to the totaling of votes and the publication of the results on the web. It can be audited by any political party.

Host: Within these insecurities that develop due to gossip and commentaries, there have also been comments at the legal level about some investigations, for example about the United States, who had the FBI investigating Smartmatic connecting or dependent of Venezuela in particular. A long time has passed since this, and I will not say this happened now.

CEO: I’m sorry that I interrupt you Fernando, but this is completely false. You can find this type of information in blogs, in conspiracy theories, Host: It was reported in the media in the United States.

CEO: I understand but it is not true. We do not have any information that the FBI or any American institution has investigated Smartmatic for anything at all nor for any connection with it and a government. It has also been published that the government or people from the Venezuelan government has participated, the Philippine government has participated, the CIA has participated but obviously that all stays in the side of conspiracy theories.

Host: In the theme of government participation, there was talk that Diosado Cabello and President Chavez donated money through auctioneering and were part owners of smartmatic

CEO: well, let me tell you, that I haven’t heard that one before. This is the first time that I hear this. But the process of participating in these auctions is perfectly legal and can be demonstrated. We work with the top banks in the world. We work with the top auditors in the world. We work with the government of the United States, Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Belgium, England with the United Nations. If that was true we would have never reached the group of clients that we have reached geographically.

Host: So it is not true that there are any participation between these auctionists and anything related to the Venezuelan government?

CEO: Absurd. Absolutely absurd. It is the same as absurd as saying that the CIA has any link to Smartmatic. It is just two extremely paranoid sides. The Venezuelan government is extremely paranoid, you know this.

Host: From the things to clarify, people were talking about that there could be a filter were the information is being triangulated were they could locate for example Cubans, and this is were the change could be generated of votes or in the case that the person does not vote, The vote would be given to either party any way, favoring the side of the government.

CEO: Well, who ever does think about these kind of theories demonstrates an immense ignorance on how the system works. In the system, the person votes, they make their selection, they verify their selection on the screen, they click on accept, and a copy comes out that was practically invented by Smartmatic and it became a standard a world wide level that the United States calls “Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail” which we call here “Proof of voting” Which is something that can be used to verify that your selection corresponds to what it was done. This goes inside of a box and at the very end the machine prints a ballot that can be scrutinized that says for example 50 votes for candidate A and 50 votes for candidate B. 54% of these boxes get opened.

Host: at random, right?

CEO: Excuse me?

Host: The revision or auditing that is done?

CEO: The auditing at the end. First the ballot print I told you about it it compared with the content of the box. When you can match the content to the print it has always coincided with the results. In Venezuela there have been 12 electoral processes using this system and every single one has been perfect and coincided with the results.