Ten months ago, Smartmatic, a Venezuelan-owned company, purchased Sequoia
Voting Systems, Inc. for $16 million (U.S.). Sequoia Voting Systems is
one of the leading manufacturers of electronic voting systems purchased
in the United States. Public access to the company’s vote-counting
software is prohibited by trade secret laws.
VotersUnite.Org’s Information Manager, John Gideon said, “The irony of
this situation shows how irrational the administration of elections in
the U.S. has become. While U.S. law allows this Venezuelan man to control
the secret counting of Americans’ votes, the U.S. State Department
doesn’t consider him fit to enter the country, even temporarily.”
The organization's Executive Director, Ellen Theisen, added, “It’s also
ironic that when we take vote-counting to Iraq, we take it in the form of
paper ballots deposited into clear plastic ballot boxes, but in our own
country, vote-counting is in the form of electronic ballots and secret
software controlled by a man our government has declared ineligible to
set foot in the country.”
Contact:
Ellen Theisen, Executive Director, VotersUnite.Org