The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), a US government-funded organization, holds a “global elections” conference in Washington that features Smartmatic Chairman Mark Malloch Brown and Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica.
Malloch-Brown kicks off the event, as announced in a November 21, 2016 Smartmatic release:
“Smartmatic’s Chairman, Lord Malloch-Brown introduced the 2016 U.S. Election Program and Seventh Global Elections Organization (GEO-7) Conference organized by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).
“The event, held from November 6-10, 2016, was the largest international gathering of election professionals of the year, with representatives from Albania to Zimbabwe in attendance. More than 500 guests attended the conference; among them 250 election management bodies from around the world.
“The USEP and GEO-7 represented a unique opportunity for participants to build relationships with colleagues and exchange best practices and lessons learned. ‘This week we had a unique chance to speak with election authorities from all over the world. We must work together to strengthen democracy by enabling a better and more fluid dialogue between governments and their citizens,’ said Antonio Mugica, Smartmatic’s CEO.
“Mugica joined a panel discussion about election integrity and credibility. While presenting the company, he made a strong case for election technology: ‘Well-designed technology brings integrity, security, accuracy and auditability to elections.’ Sharing the stage with Antonio were Lorenzo Cordova Vianello, President of the National Electoral Institute of Mexico; Michael Hogan, Partner Operations for Civics and Elections, Google; and Dr. Staffan Darnolf, Director, Program Development and Innovation, International Foundation for Electoral Systems.”
Source:
1. www.smartmatic.com/media/smartmatic-shares-experiences
1. Why are foreign Smartmatic executives in the United States claiming to “strengthen democracy” by using their systems to facilitate “dialogue between governments and citizens”?
2. Is it the job of an electronic voting vendor to facilitate such dialogue? With whose consent?
3. What does voting and tabulation have to do with citizen-government dialogue?
4. What is the larger agenda that Mugica and Malloch-Brown are promoting?
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