With the acquisition of Sequoia and its generations-old reputation and track record, Smartmatic can now merge its new Venezuela-developed technology with the legacy company’s trusted systems and brand.
Ownership of Sequoia, an American company, allows Smartmatic to begin penetrating the American electoral services market.
With Sequoia, Smartmatic sells technology and support services to election commissions in 307 counties in 16 states.
Kristin Sullivan, a research analyst for the Connecticut state legislature, writes in a report:
“In Connecticut, the secretary of state is responsible for approving and purchasing voting machines. In doing so, she is bound by federal and state laws that dictate voting system standards. Any DRE would have to meet those standards to be considered for use in Connecticut. This includes accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, and the SAES3000 does not have this capability. (However, Smartmatic recently acquired Sequoia Voting Systems, a major national manufacturer of DREs. With their joint technologies, Smartmatic plans to produce a DRE that meets accessibility requirements and use it in Venezuela’s fall elections).“
(In 2006 Smartmatic-Sequoia won the contract for Cook County, Illinois, what was then the largest election automation contract in the United States, Cook County.)
Thanks to Smartmatic’s integration and engineering-based expertise, Edge2Plus and HAAT were developed exclusively for the American market.
- SAES: “Smartmatic Automated Election System” Voting software with Venezuelan government shareholding.
- EMS: “Electoral Management System”
- Code Review: Process of reviewing source code for bugs before implementation.
- HAAT: Precinct level accumulator for consolidating and printing the consolidated results and for transmission of unofficial results from all precinct voting devices
- DRE: Direct-Recording Electronic
- Edge2Plus: Is a stand-alone DRE polling place voting machine that incorporates a color LCD integral touch screen, integrated (voter) privacy flaps, poll worker panel, internal memory for storing ballot data and voting records, removable results cartridge, and protective & public counters, and an APS external printer VVPAT (UTG).
- SAES 3000: Direct Recording Electronic, voting machines used in all the elections of President Hugo Chavez. These models evolved into SAES 3300, SAES 4000 and SAES 4200.
Source:
1. https://www.smartmatic.com/es/estados-unidos-la-innovacion-electoral-facilita-el-voto
2. https://www.cga.ct.gov/2005/rpt/2005-R-0546.htm
3. https://www.linkedin.com/in/edilmopalencia/
4. https://www.linkedin.com/in/danyluis/
5. https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-m-03a25b3/
6. https://www.linkedin.com/in/farnao/
7. https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-rafael-ramirez/
8. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamadriz/
1. Smartmatic products are developed outside the United States. Is it important for regulatory agencies to carefully monitor the source codes and components of these solutions of a critical infrastructure such as the electoral one?
2. What are the screening processes for foreign software developers developing products abroad for American elections?
3. Beyond Connecticut’s findings of not meeting all standards, did the state’s secretary of state know that the products and software developed by Smartmatic were funded by the Venezuelan government through Smartmatic’s Bizta subsidiary in Venezuela?
4. Smartmatic indicates that it will develop a Direct Recording Electronic voting machine, or DRE, that meets accessibility requirements and use it in Venezuela’s fall elections. Will this model be used with the regime-funded SAES software?
5. Has Venezuela been the incubator and prototyping center for developing and implementing electoral technology in the United States?
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