Venezuelan Interest In U.S. Voting Software

A number of readers wrote in about a U.S. federal investigation into the Venezulean ownership of Sequoia Voting Systems, which makes voting machines used in 17 states and the District of Columbia. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States wonders whether the anti-U.S. government of Hugo Chávez could be trying to influence the U.S. midterm elections. From the article: "Government officials familiar with the Smartmatic inquiry said they doubted that even if the Chávez government was some kind of secret partner in the company, it would try to influence elections in the United States. But some of them speculated that the purchase of Sequoia could help Smartmatic sell its products in Latin America and other developing countries, where safeguards against fraud are weaker."

Poster child of FUD

[orzetto]

A GOP risking to lose an election, a less popular than ever PotUS, a largely announced electoral defeat: so let's try to blame the machines, and while we're at it Chávez too. It only surprises me they did not mention the company's CEO is an alias used by Osama Bin Laden or some other scarecrow.

The article also mentions (in the second page) the controversy about Chávez' re-election's, but fail to mention that election's result was UN-certified (unlike someone else's) and the guy in charge of UN controls was Jimmy Carter, not Fidel Castro.

Re:Oh fucking please

[Sique]

But if anything, Hugo Chavez would actually be interested in keeping the current administration in power. It keeps the oil prices high (good for Hugo Chavez), it is so incompetent, that any uprising it tries to initiate against Hugo Chavez is easily defeated (the last one was gone after 48 hrs), and it gives him enough populist argumentation to use any means to stay in power and also suppress any other uprising.

I also think that al-Qaida would vote G.W.Bush: Never ever have the recruiting possibilities have be better, never ever have the arguments of al-Qaida being existant better. Never ever have the means and possibilities of getting money from the Arab world being better due to high income on oil and an general feeling of being waged an undeclared war against from the U.S..

Never ever have allies of the U.S. being more alienated from the U.S., making "divide et impera" the most easiest ever. Never ever was the danger of the own population being in favor of U.S. so minimal. The U.S. was actually managing to get the same people of Iran, who were burning candles on the streets in condolence to the victims of 9/11 and thus expressing their sympathy for the U.S., now being nearly unified against the same U.S..

If I was the U.S. administration, I would recommend to hush up any possible ties between Sequoia voting machines and Venezuela.

Re:Ridiculous

[senatorpjt]

Yeah, it's strange that once one of the voting-machine companies might be controlled by a leftist, suddenly they can't be trusted.

Safeguards against fraud in Latin America

[Acer500]

I hope so. I'm from Uruguay, and elections here are MUCH better safeguarded than the ones in the US - for one, there is a paper trail.

For the 2000 elections I was a representative for a small party and was an observer at the vote counting (there was an observer at each polling station for every party in most urban areas, plus independant observers). It was of course voluntary work (non-paid).

Let me know if such measures are implemented in the US - last I heard, they aren't. I was proud to be a watchman of our democratic process, and this is South freaking America.

Unfortunately, countries such as Venezuela or Cuba (or the US) don't inspire in me the same confidence.

Re:Hold on a second

[RealGrouchy]

Let's take care of the known threats to fair elections at home before we get too wrapped up in hypothetical foreign conspiracies.

Hell, if it takes Chavez to get the US back to pen-and-paper ballots, then all the better.

Is there some way we can get Kim Jong-Il to invest in Diebold?

- RG>