More subpoenas seem to be on the way for voting machine company officials, this time in Illinois where it looks like the city aldermen in Chicago, according to the Sun-Times are none-too-happy to be forced to continue payments to Sequoia Voting Systems who ran such a disastrous primary on new electronic machines across the state just a few weeks ago.
A similar battle has been underway in Texas where officials have been trying to avoid payment to ES&S for the primary disaster down there on March 7th, just two weeks before the Illinois debacle.
In the meantime, the hypocrisy of the Right Wing continues vis a vis Electronic Voting Machines and their newly discovered concerns, as we reported late last week, about a Venezuelan company, possibly tied to Hugo Chavez, controlling the Sequoia company, and thus having an unknown and troubling amount of concern over American elections.
As in the wingnut piece we pointed to last week, Richard Brand in the Miami Herald (via right-leaning RealClearPolitics.com) is horrified that a company tied to Chavez may be having undue influence over American elections.
Not a word in Brand’s piece about the influence over American elections by partisan companies, run by partisan executives, such as Diebold, ES&S, Hart InterCivic and others who are given carte blanche to use secret, uninspected software to count almost every citizen’s vote in the country by now.
So, again, while we’re happy to see concern — no matter where it comes from — about the little-noticed watershed change in our electoral system which now allows private companies to control the most sacred element of our democracy, with virtually zero checks, balances or public oversight, it’s incredibly hypocritical (even by wingnut standards), to turn a blind eye to the Rightwing influence over all the other companies who have even more control over more of American votes.
We’d hope that the concerns about Chavez would suddenly help these guys realize what the hell has been going on here. We’re concerned about any private corporation having such influence over our elections. But, in typical Rightwing blinders-on fashion, it’s only votes that are perceived to be questionable because they might have undue influence from the Left that seems to concern these folks.
What a pity. But hardly a surprise.
To underscore that irony/hypocrisy, take a look at this concern of Brand’s about a recent Venezualan elections run on machines made by Smartmatic, the company which now owns Sequoia (and be sure you’re sitting down when you read it)…
Yes, Brand is upset to see that the exit polls in Venezuala said one thing, and yet the final tallies said another.
Knock us over with a feather.
Then there’s this:
Holy cow! What an outrage! “Suspicious patters” in results posted on the Internet and removed later?! We hope that such a thing would never occur in an American Election!!! Oh, wait…
Finally, Brand raps it all up in concern for Smartmatic’s convoluted ownership chain and compares it to the Dubai ports fiasco:
Newsflash for Brand (and the rest of those concerned about enemies, apparently foreign but not domestic, and the acquisition of “influence in our electoral process”): Our constitution and country was not built on “Trust Us” and “Faith-Based Democracy”. It was built on checks, balances, and strict oversight by the people of all things publicly run by the Government. If our Electoral Democracy doesn’t fall at the top of the list of such publicly run duties of the Government and which demands transparency and strict oversight, we don’t know what does.
To that end, the secret ownership of Sequoia Voting Systems is no more troubling than the ownership of any Voting Machines Company who is allowed to run and yes, control, our elections with virtually ZERO responsibility to be accountable to the people.
…CONTACT…
Richard Brand: rmb381@nyu.edu
Miami-Herald: Feedback page
(Hat tip Carolyn Kay for the pointer to Brand’s article.)
They might as well all wear T-shirts emblazoned with the words "I am a bigoted hypocrite." The righties (NOT conservatives – read "thugs and goons") make absolutely no attempts to hide their manipulative biases.
This much is clear: not only should voting machines with foreign ownership be subject to CFIUS investigation, but every voting machine company in the US should be investigated similarly and any machines used in public elections should be subject to public scrutiny.
…There is a lesson here.
…Democrates need to initiate a hostile takeover of any/all of our domestic E-voting companies and then drive the lane straight to the hoop…baby!
…I figure we count the votes like the republicans have done, and retake the House, the Senate and regain the White House in ’08. Name two or three SCOTUS picks too.
…Then we will call it even and get rid of the machines.
Americans making machines = Good.
Dictators = Bad
…pretty simple and what’s with the dots?
Didn’t George Soros say he’d spend his fortune to get Bush out of the White House. Can you imagine the uproar if he bought Diebold!!!!??? That would be cool.
You can’t right all the wrongs done by the Repubs and their financial backers. There are dead citizens and soldiers and many other lesser incivilities and wasted or stolen monies.
We can only do what’s right for now and try to do better in the future.
It would be poetic justice if George Soros bought DIEBOLD. Then you’d see them banned, which would be hypocrisy, because when the wingnuts want something banned, it will get banned. You’ll hear the Republican Noise Machines – Rush Lame-boob, Sean "Let Freedom Ring" Hannity, Bill O’liely, and Fox News crying to ban them, and then they’ll get banned.
Better yet, only Sequoia will get banned because of ties to Chavez, but not the GOP e-vote machines.
How come they’re not calling this guy a tin-foil-hat conspirator??? Because he’s a wrongwinger. There is sooooo much bias in the MSM towards the wrongwingers. It’s crazy.
I’ve been saying fight fire with fire. I hope Chavez does control Sequoia, and he controls who gets into the U.S. congress. Then they will stop the e-vote machines. I’ve been saying this all along…it’s all fine and dandy as long as GOP are stealing elections. But the same loopholes they are using, can be exploited by leaders of other countries. I’ve been saying this all along. I hope it happens. Homeland Security, if they were doing their job, would’ve banned these machines years ago, simply based on the fact that terrorists could control the vote in the United States. The GOP may have gotten the jump on hacking these machines, but they absolutely do not have the monopoly on hacking into them. Homeland Security isn’t doing their job, just like 5% of our ports aren’t secure. What exactly in hell IS homeland security for, and what exactly do they do??? I know GOP crony Ridge told us to duct tape our windows. Are we suupposed to take that duct tape down? I’ve had mine on for years, and haven’t been given follow-up instructions, and we’re suffocating here. I still have it up.
Computerized elections are being run or
considered in many countries, including some notorious for past riggings; thus the risks discussed here exist worldwide.
Dude, this is a smoke screen. In Nevada, a red state, in which Bush barely beat Kerry in 04, we have Sequoias at every poll now. We have 11 year old Sequoias without printers and no ability to verify the vote in Las Vegas at ever precinct. We have new Sequoias, by generous donation of HAVA, at all the other counties in the state and one at each precinct in Las Vegas with the non-printer Sequoias. Until this issue gets addressed, you need to ask yourself why Nevada’s Repugs are not complaining?
This whining about Sequoia is a smoke screen on the part of these other Repugs. If they really are worried, they’d do something about Sequoias in Nevada. But no, they are silent about it along with Senator Harry Reid who won the last few elections on those paperless Sequoias in Las Vegas.
Just wait, they will soon ALL see some foreign owners with the voting machines and want them immediately banned.
They can’t take their own medicine, hah!!!
The voting machines are going to hell, they never belonged anyway.
Big Dan #8
You said "5% of our ports aren’t secure", and that surprised me.
Of the largest ports I have been to, on the east and west coasts, none of them are secure.
Not in the sense of containers. They can be compromised because only about 5% are inspected competently.
What are the real figures?
Looks like you can’t argue with success. The GOP steals a few elections in the US and every other repressive dictator sees a good thing and wants in on the action. But here’s an ironic twist for ya:
If only 3 steel framed buildings in history (out of tens of thousands) totally collapsed solely due to fire, (the 3 WTC buildings all on one day) then why don’t demolition companies save themselves months of work and kilograms of explosive by just igniting some kerosene in those unwanted buildings? After all, kerosene burns at 1800 degrees F, (inside jet engine combustion chambers it does) and steel melts at 2800 degrees, so a kerosene fire should collapse a steel frame building? Right?
So why don’t we change the way we demolish buildings then?
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