SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. was co-founded in the late 1990s by three Venezuelan nationals. Their first projects were ATMs used in Mexico and Venezuela, but after the 2000 American election, they started to develop their Smartmatic vote counting software. Their big success came in 2004 when the opposition party's qualified for a referendum on Chavez. This is the year they received funding from the Venezuela government and were installed throughout the entire country. Chavez went on to win 60% for almost a decade until the 2010-2011 national election where he 'only' won 55%. I use the term win very loosely. The names of voters who had participated in the request of the 2004 recall referendum against Chávez had been made public and distributed amongst their military and police services.
Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
1. Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
2. Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
3. Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
4. Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. was co-founded in the late 1990s by three Venezuelan nationals. Their first projects were ATMs used in Mexico and Venezuela, but after the 2000 American election, they started to develop their Smartmatic vote counting software. Their big success came in 2004 when the opposition party's qualified for a referendum on Chavez. This is the year they received funding from the Venezuela government and were installed throughout the entire country. Chavez went on to win 60% for almost a decade until the 2010-2011 national election where he 'only' won 55%. I use the term win very loosely. The names of voters who had participated in the request of the 2004 recall referendum against Chávez had been made public and distributed amongst their military and police services.
Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
1. Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
2. Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
3. Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
4. Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. was co-founded in the late 1990s by three Venezuelan nationals. Their first projects were ATMs used in Mexico and Venezuela, but after the 2000 American election, they started to develop their Smartmatic vote counting software. Their big success came in 2004 when the opposition party's qualified for a referendum on Chavez. This is the year they received funding from the Venezuela government and were installed throughout the entire country. Chavez went on to win 60% for almost a decade until the 2010-2011 national election where he 'only' won 55%. I use the term win very loosely. The names of voters who had participated in the request of the 2004 recall referendum against Chávez had been made public and distributed amongst their military and police services.
Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
-
Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
-
Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
-
Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
-
Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06CARACAS2063_a.html Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
1. Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
2. Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
3. Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
4. Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. was co-founded in the late 1990s by three Venezuelan nationals. Their first projects were ATMs used in Mexico and Venezuela, but after the 2000 American election, they started to develop their Smartmatic vote counting software. Their big success came in 2004 when the opposition party's qualified for a referendum on Chavez. This is the year they received funding from the Venezuela government and were installed throughout the entire country. Chavez went on to win 60% for almost a decade until the 2010-2011 national election where he 'only' won 55%. I use the term win very loosely. The names of voters who had participated in the request of the 2004 recall referendum against Chávez had been made public and distributed amongst their military and police services.
Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
-
Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
-
Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
-
Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
-
Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06CARACAS2063_a.html Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
1. Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
2. Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
3. Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
4. Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. was co-founded in the late 1990s by three Venezuelan nationals. Their first projects were ATMs used in Mexico and Venezuela, but after the 2000 American election, they started to develop their Smartmatic vote counting software. Their big success came in 2004 when the opposition party's qualified for a referendum on Chavez. This is the year they received funding from the Venezuela government and were installed throughout the entire country. Chavez went on to win 60% for almost a decade until the 2010-2011 national election where he 'only' won 55%. I use the term win very loosely. The names of voters who had participated in the request of the 2004 recall referendum against Chávez had been made public and distributed amongst their military and police services.
Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
-
Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
-
Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
-
Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
-
Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06CARACAS2063_a.html Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
1. Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
2. Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
3. Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
4. Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. was co-founded in the late 1990s by three Venezuelan nationals. Their first projects were ATMs used in Mexico and Venezuela, but after the 2000 American election, they started to develop their Smartmatic vote counting software. Their big success came in 2004 when the opposition party's qualified for a referendum on Chavez. This is the year they received funding from the Venezuela government and were installed throughout the entire country. Chavez went on to win 60% for almost a decade until the 2010-2011 national election where he 'only' won 55%. I use the term win very loosely. The names of voters who had participated in the request of the 2004 recall referendum against Chávez had been made public and distributed amongst their military and police services.
Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
-
Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
-
Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
-
Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
-
Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06CARACAS2063_a.html Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
-
Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
-
Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
-
Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
-
Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. was co-founded in the late 1990s by three Venezuelan nationals. Their first projects were ATMs used in Mexico and Venezuela, but after the 2000 American election, they started to develop their Smartmatic vote counting software. Their big success came in 2004 when the opposition party's qualified for a referendum on Chavez. This is the year they received funding from the Venezuela government and were installed throughout the entire country. Chavez went on to win 60% for almost a decade until the 2010-2011 national election where he 'only' won 55%. I use the term win very loosely. The names of voters who had participated in the request of the 2004 recall referendum against Chávez had been made public and distributed amongst their military and police services.
Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
-
Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
-
Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
-
Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
-
Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes. The software stores the ballot template to count votes so it can easily be accessed by 3rd parties wanting to print ballots that look authentic. Furthermore, most states track registered voters and when they last voted. Experts claim that fake ballots are frequently made using identities of people the fraudsters know are unlikely to vote.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. was co-founded in the late 1990s by three Venezuelan nationals. Their first projects were ATMs used in Mexico and Venezuela, but after the 2000 American election, they started to develop their Smartmatic vote counting software. Their big success came in 2004 when the opposition party's qualified for a referendum on Chavez. This is the year they received funding from the Venezuela government and were installed throughout the entire country. Chavez went on to win 60% for almost a decade until the 2010-2011 national election where he 'only' won 55%. I use the term win very loosely. The names of voters who had participated in the request of the 2004 recall referendum against Chávez had been made public and distributed amongst their military and police services.
Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
-
Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
-
Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
-
Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
-
Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes.
Robert Downes, a political counselor for Reason Magazine, said that companies using Smartmatic could be violating corruption laws. Well before Smartmatic, Venezuelan law had dictated that voting ought to be automated to limit fraud -- he U.S. company ES&S and Spanish firm Indra had already sold systems to the electoral body. When the new pro-Chavez CNE was named in September 2003, however, it immediately set out to replace all existing systems. Declaring the bid process to be an emergency (though there was as yet no referendum scheduled), the CNE bypassed normal procedures and initiated a closed bid process. Dominion is just another company in a long line that has followed this procedure to hide participants and investors from the regulators.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf
SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. was co-founded in the late 1990s by three Venezuelan nationals. Their first projects were ATMs used in Mexico and Venezuela, but after the 2000 American election, they started to develop their Smartmatic vote counting software. Their big success came in 2004 when the opposition party's qualified for a referendum on Chavez. This is the year they received funding from the Venezuela government and were installed throughout the entire country. Chavez went on to win 60% for almost a decade until the 2010-2011 national election where he 'only' won 55%. I use the term win very loosely. The names of voters who had participated in the request of the 2004 recall referendum against Chávez had been made public and distributed amongst their military and police services.
Our very own United States Department of Commerce found out even in 2006 that the Venezuelans were contracting out their software while still owning propriety rights. Chicago was one of the first major American cities to use the machines. The software had 'malfunctioned' and stalled the results of the midterm federal elections for over a week. During the investigation, Jack Blaine, then-President of both Sequoia and Smartmatic Corporation, mentioned that Venezuelan investors still own a significant share - but he could not comment on whether Hugo Chavez was one of the investors.
In 2007, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter and James Baker, a Republican, issued a statement as co-chairs of the National Election Commission that warned such software is easily manipulated. I've provided sources explaining that this software and similar variants have been used all across South America including in Argentina and Brazil. A California investigation prompted by this statement found the following was possible:
-
Smartmatic “[A]llows the insertion of a Trojan program via a malicious USB removable storage media device that could modify ballot definitions and results. .
-
Smartmatic and related software “designed to conduct Logic and Accuracy testing in a mode distinct from Election Day mode, which enables malicious firmware . . . to avoid operating in an incorrect manner while in testing mode.
-
Such software contains “a shell-like scripting language in the firmware . . . that could be coerced into performing malicious actions, in apparent violation of 2002 Voting System Standards . . . [and that] includes, among others, a command to set the protective counter of the machine . . .; a command that can be used to overwrite . . . the system firmware or audit trail; and a command to reboot the machine at will.”
-
Permit “corrupted or malicious data injected into removable media . . . with potentially serious consequences including alteration of recorded votes, adding false results, and, under some conditions, causing damage to the election management system when the corrupted or malicious data is loaded for vote counting.”
According to trained specialists, Chavez and other corrupt officials learned that they didn't need to fake entire results like in previous decades of S. American politics. Chavez won his recall referendum by only ~800,000 votes. Distribute the fake votes across the entire country (in Venezuela, 23 states) and you only need to provide a paper trail for about 15-20,000 votes.
Sources:
https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf