Voting Integrity Project Calls For Investigations

I've posted here three Voting Integrity Project documents pertaining to Sequoia Voting Systems and the reported Hart Intercivic hostile takeover I commented on in my earlier post. WRS

The Press Release:

For Immediate Release: 5 May 2008

Contact: Wayne Stinson 518-287-1463


Voting Integrity Project Calls For Investigations

The Peacemakers of Schoharie County, Voting Integrity Project has requested state and federal regulators investigate Sequoia Voting Systems. The Sequoia company is in line to sell their ImageCast ballot marking device to ninety percent of New York counties.

Alarmed by recent revelations of a corporate takeover initiated by Hart Intercivic, a competitor company already under investigation for fraud, and the discovery that Sequoia Voting Systems failed to sever foreign financial interests as required by an earlier federal review, the Voting Integrity Project has requested the New York State Comptroller initiate a Vendor Responsibility Investigation of Sequoia/Hart, and have also asked Congressman Michael McNulty, 21st Congressional District, to refer the issue to The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for review.

“New York’s voters should not have to worry that their election results could be manipulated by a foreign government or a private corporation. Nor should they have to suffer poor customer service or unreliable equipment” said Voting Integrity Project Coordinator Wayne Stinson. “These investigations are intended to protect the taxpayer’s pocketbook and the sovereignty of the United States. We believe the integrity of our elections is paramount to preserving democracy” Stinson said.

Vendor Responsibility Investigations are required by the State Comptroller’s purchasing rules. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is an inter-agency committee of the U.S. government that reviews the national security implications of foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies or operations.

The New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and both Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton have been apprised of the requests.


Comptroller letter:

30 April 2008

New York State Comptroller
Vendor Responsibility Office
110 State St.
Albany, NY 12236


Vendor Responsibility Staff,

In January of this year, despite all the well intentioned but tardy efforts of the Board of Elections, the US Justice Department seized control of the New York State voting machine selection process.

When the State BOE met in the third week of January they were struggling to
retain some semblance of their bureaucratic identity while complying with the Federal District Court’s directives. Impeded by an absolute partisan split, Judge Sharpe’s corrupting time schedule, and a limited offering of Ballot Marking Devices (BMD) to choose among, the board was initially able to approve only one BMD for purchase by the county Boards of Elections.

The January meeting of the NYS BOE was concurrent with the Election Commissioners Association meeting in Saratoga. With practically all counties represented at that venue, most NY County Election Commissioners immediately signed on for the one BMD choice, the Sequoia ImageCast offered by Sequoia Voting Systems (SVS Inc.) of Denver, CO.

Despite the success of vendors’ legal challenges which eventually allowed other choices almost ninety percent of NY Counties have maintained their selection of the Sequoia machine.

The Sequoia ImageCast is a ballot marking device combined with a ballot scanner that is capable of tabulating votes. It was, at the time of selection, a new assemblage of devices which had not undergone any testing in NY. The scanner portion of this machine is the result of Sequoia’s collaboration with Dominion Voting, Ontario Canada. It is this foreign relationship as well as Sequoia’s other interests and obligations which have recently surfaced that are the cause of our concerns.

Posting on ComputerWorld.com and his own weblog Brad Friedman reports that almost simultaneously with Sequoia’s NY success a competitor voting equipment company, Hart InterCivic Inc. of Austin TX, launched a hostile takeover of S.V.S. Inc. And, Mrt. Friedman reports the takeover is facilitated by Sequoia’s two million dollar obligation to their former parent company, Smartmatic Inc., an offshore consortium with ties to the Venezuelan government. www.bradblog.com/?p=5885

Sequoia had claimed to have severed ties with Smartmatic to avoid a critical review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). However, it now seems that Hart InterCivic wants to purchase that two million dollar obligation as their initial volley in the takeover bid. They may be well on their way to accomplishing that goal by the time you read this.

Mr. Friedman had previously reported (3/27/08) that an unresolved whistle-blower initiated fraud complaint against Hart InterCivic will now be allowed to go forward after being held up for months by the Justice Department. In this litigation Hart is accused of committing fraud by presenting their election software and machines as secure and reliable even though they knew otherwise. www.bradblog.com/?p=5847

Hart InterCivic has a partner company which provides the software side of their offering: SOE Software of Tampa FL. A brief visit to their web page www.soesoftware.com reveals that two of their top management team have previous business relationships with Mobil, Sperry Univac, General Dynamic, IBM, Raytheon, AT&T, MCI and Motorola. This raises the specter of future corporate meddling in our elections in addition to foreign influence.

Regardless of how this takeover bid ends it seems obvious that New York State should take a careful look at these vendors. Giving the changes reported above, the BOE and the State Comptrollers Office must undertake vendor responsibility investigations This review would rightly be triggered by either the foreign financial interest in Sequoia or the vendor substitution by Hart, especially since both vendors have been untruthful or are now accused of being untruthful.

More importantly, we need to consider what this is all about, and it's not only about the immediate profit from the sale of voting machines. It's about power and the possibility of much greater future profits. No one knows better than the machine manufacturers and vendors how efficient computerized vote counting can be for controlling elections.

Please investigate the responsibility of these vendors, both the primary voting machine vendors and their secondary affiliated entities.

For the Voting Integrity Project,


Wayne Stinson, Coordinator

CC: NYS Board of Elections, NYS Attorney General



Letter to Representative McNulty, 21st CD:

30 April 2008

Rep. Michael McNulty
2210 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515-3221

Dear Rep. McNulty,

In January of this year, despite all the well intentioned but tardy efforts of the New York State Board of Elections (BOE) the US Justice Department seized control of the NY voting machine selection process.

When the BOE met in the third week of January they were struggling to
retain some semblance of their bureaucratic identity while complying with the Federal District Court’s directives. Impeded by an absolute partisan split, Judge Sharpe’s corrupting time schedule, and a limited offering of Ballot Marking Devices to choose from, the board was initially able to approve only one BMD for purchase by the county Boards of Elections.

The January meeting of the NYS BOE was concurrent with the State Election Commissioners Association meeting in Saratoga. With practically all counties represented at that venue most NY County Election Commissioners immediately signed on for the only BMD choice, the Sequoia ImageCast offered by Sequoia Voting Systems (SVS Inc.) of Denver, CO.

Despite the success of vendors’ legal challenges, which eventually allowed other choices, almost ninety percent of NY Counties have maintained their selection of the Sequoia machine.

The Sequoia ImageCast is a ballot marking device combined with a ballot scanner that is capable of tabulating votes. It was, at the time of selection, a new assemblage of devices which had not undergone any testing in NY. The scanner portion of this machine is the result of Sequoia’s collaboration with Dominion Voting, Ontario Canada. It is this potential foreign influence and Sequoia’s other interests and obligations which have recently surfaced, that are the cause of our concerns.

Posting on ComputerWorld.com and his own weblog Brad Friedman reports that almost simultaneously with Sequoia’s NY success a competitor voting equipment company, Hart InterCivic Inc. of Austin TX, launched a hostile takeover of Sequoia Voting Systems. Mr. Friedman also reveals that the takeover is facilitated by Sequoia’s two million dollar obligation to their former parent company, Smartmatic Inc., an offshore consortium with ties to the Venezuelan government. www.bradblog.com/?p=5885

Sequoia had claimed to have severed its ties with Smartmatic in order to avoid a critical review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). However, it now seems that a financial connection to the multi-national remains and Hart InterCivic wants to purchase that two million dollar note as their initial volley in the takeover bid.
Hart InterCivic has a partner company which provides the software side of their offering: SOE Software of Tampa FL. A brief visit to their web page www.soesoftware.com reveals that two of their top management team have previous business relationships with Mobil, Sperry Univac, General Dynamic, IBM, Raytheon, AT&T, MCI and Motorola. This raises the specter of future corporate meddling in our elections as well as foreign influence.

Regardless of how this takeover ends it seems obvious that New York State and congress must take another look at these vendors. A CFIUS review is warranted given the evidence of foreign financial interest in Sequoia (Canadian and Venezuelan +?) and the vendor’s deceit.

Most importantly, we must consider what this is all about. It's not only about the immediate profit from the sale of voting machines. It's about power and the possibility of much greater future profits. No one knows better than the machine manufacturers and vendors how efficient computerized vote counting can be for controlling elections.

Please help protect the integrity of our elections. Initiate CFIUS reviews of Sequoia and Hart Intercivic.

For the Voting Integrity Project,


Wayne Stinson, Coordinator

Cc: New York State Board of Elections, Senator C. Schumer, Senator H. Clinton