If founded to be true. This would make so much sense.
In 2006 "Sequoia" was in 17 States, in Obama's 2008 Run it was more, with Venezuelas Smartmatic In Full Swing, Look At Obamas Smile Of Gratitude?
President Barack Obama met Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez for the first time at the Summit of the Americas.
Wikipedia: Smartmatic
Founding
In 1997,
[4] three engineers,
Antonio Mugica,
Alfredo José Anzola and Roger Piñate
[5], began collaborating in a group while working at Panagroup Corp. in
Caracas, Venezuela.
[6][7][8][9][10][11] Following the
2000 United States presidential election and its
hanging chad controversy in Florida, the group proposed to dedicate a system toward electoral functions.
[10][12] Smartmatic was officially incorporated on 11 April 2000 in
Delaware by Alfredo José Anzola.
[13][14][15] Smartmatic then established its headquarters in
Boca Raton, Florida with seven employees.
[8][9] After receiving funds from private investors,
[8] the company then began to expand.
Expansion
Smartmatic was a little-known firm with no experience in voting technology before it was chosen by the Venezuelan authorities to replace the country's elections machinery ahead of
a contentious referendum that confirmed
Hugo Chávez as president in August 2004.
[16] Before the election, Smartmatic was part of a consortium that included a software company partly owned by a Venezuelan government agency.
[17] In March 2005,
[16] with a windfall of some $120 million from its first three contracts with
Venezuela, Smartmatic then bought the much larger and more established
Sequoia Voting Systems, which by 2006 had voting equipment installed in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
[16] On August 26, 2005, Sequoia Voting Systems announced
[18] that Mr. Jack Blaine would serve in the dual role as President of Sequoia Voting Systems and President of Sequoia's parent company, Smartmatic.
Wikipedia: Sequoia Voting Systems
After losing money for several years, on March 8, 2005, Sequoia was acquired by
Smartmatic, a multi-national technology company which had developed advanced election systems, voting machines included. Thereafter Smartmatic assigned a major portion of its development and managerial teams, dedicated to revamping some of Sequoia's old-fashioned, legacy voting machines, and replacing their technology with
avant-garde proprietary features and developments, which resulted in new, high-tech products. As a result, Sequoia sold many new-generation election products and experienced a healthy financial resurrection during the fiscal years of 2006 and 2007. However, in November 2007, following a verdict by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (
CFIUS), Smartmatic was ordered to sell Sequoia, which it did to its Sequoia managers having U.S. citizenship.
[12]
California decertification/recertification
On August 3, 2007, California Secretary of State
Debra Bowen withdrew approval and granted conditional reapproval
[13] to Sequoia Voting Systems
optical scan and
DRE voting machines after a "review of the voting machines certified for use in California in March 2007"
[13] found "significant security weaknesses throughout the Sequoia system"
[14] and "pervasive structural weaknesses"
[14] which raise "serious questions as to whether the Sequoia software can be relied upon to protect the integrity of elections."
[14]
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