Hugo, you aren't the boss of us
By Joel Engelhardt
Palm Beach Post Columnist
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
In Chicago, aldermen usually try to avoid hearings into fraud, not lead them. But when the subject is vote-counting, that's another matter.
Alderman Edward Burke didn't like how long it took to count votes - more than two days - after the city's March primaries. He organized hearings and learned that the company that supplied Chicago with its voting machines, Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., is owned by Venezuelans.
"We may have stumbled across what could be (an) international conspiracy to subvert the electoral process in the United States of America," Alderman Burke declared. "I am saying the potential for tampering with the American electoral process where presidential elections can be determined by just one state exists here."
Uh-oh. Venezuelans in charge of America's elections. Venezuela is the nation whose leftist president, Hugo Chávez, keeps thumbing his nose at the Bush administration while playing nice with Fidel Castro. If he's in charge of Sequoia, which doesn't supply equipment just for Chicago's elections but supplies 52,000 touch-screen voting machines throughout the nation - including those in Palm Beach, Indian River, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties - that's something to be concerned about.
Unless Mr. Chávez nationalizes the privately held company, however, he is no more in control of Sequoia than President Bush is in charge of Wendy's.
What raised Alderman Burke's suspicion was the circuitous trail that led to the new owners of the 100-year-old company. Sequoia was acquired in 2005 by Smartmatic Corp., a private company based in Boca Raton but owned by Venezuelan investors through a series of holding companies in Europe and the Caribbean, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"Tell me a single solitary reason there is to trace ownership through three shell corporations to the Curacao Islands and its roots to Venezuela," Alderman Burke said. When a Chicago alderman sees an investment cloaked like that, he normally takes notes, not umbrage. Despite his long tenure on the Chicago City Council - he has served since 1969 - Alderman Burke didn't like this corporate shell game.
Venezuelan ownership explained why Venezuelan technicians could be found in restricted counting areas on election night. Results were delayed primarily by failures in remote reporting. More confusion came about because Chicago, unlike Palm Beach County, wasn't satisfied with a single voting system to replace its now-discredited punch-card ballots. The city known for the Election Day battle cry "Vote early and often," gave voters more than one choice.
As if elections aren't hard enough, the city's 2,604 polling places were outfitted with both touch-screen machines (accompanied by printers to create a paper trail) and optical-scan, fill-in-the-bubble ballots. Voters weren't encouraged by Chicago politicians to cast two votes - one on each system - as far as I know. But poll workers didn't know all the subtleties of the new hardware. Many had nothing more than a poorly written manual to go by. Some had been trained by videotape. Most didn't touch the equipment until Election Day.
Alderman Burke started an investigation. He found a smoking gun linking Sequoia to Hugo Chávez. A software company owned by the new owners, Sequoia admits, took a $150,000 loan from the Venezuelan equivalent of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The loan gave the government a temporary ownership position, but it was repaid within a year. That didn't stop Alderman Burke from reminding Chicagoans that Hugo Chávez has been declared by no less than Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "an enemy of the United States."
It's bad enough to be an election equipment maker these days without being linked to Hugo Chávez. Every complaint about any kind of voting system indicts all. It's not too great a leap to the day that Hugo Chávez is blamed for poor screen illumination at King's Point.
Alderman Burke's outrage is easy to understand. After all, in Chicago, counting votes is a time-honored tradition of the city's politicians. No Chicago alderman worth his salt is going to stand for handing that power off to foreigners.
Find this article at: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2006/06/20/m12a_engelhardtcol_0620.html
Palm Beach Post Columnist
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
In Chicago, aldermen usually try to avoid hearings into fraud, not lead them. But when the subject is vote-counting, that's another matter.
Alderman Edward Burke didn't like how long it took to count votes - more than two days - after the city's March primaries. He organized hearings and learned that the company that supplied Chicago with its voting machines, Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., is owned by Venezuelans.
"We may have stumbled across what could be (an) international conspiracy to subvert the electoral process in the United States of America," Alderman Burke declared. "I am saying the potential for tampering with the American electoral process where presidential elections can be determined by just one state exists here."
Uh-oh. Venezuelans in charge of America's elections. Venezuela is the nation whose leftist president, Hugo Chávez, keeps thumbing his nose at the Bush administration while playing nice with Fidel Castro. If he's in charge of Sequoia, which doesn't supply equipment just for Chicago's elections but supplies 52,000 touch-screen voting machines throughout the nation - including those in Palm Beach, Indian River, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties - that's something to be concerned about.
Unless Mr. Chávez nationalizes the privately held company, however, he is no more in control of Sequoia than President Bush is in charge of Wendy's.
What raised Alderman Burke's suspicion was the circuitous trail that led to the new owners of the 100-year-old company. Sequoia was acquired in 2005 by Smartmatic Corp., a private company based in Boca Raton but owned by Venezuelan investors through a series of holding companies in Europe and the Caribbean, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"Tell me a single solitary reason there is to trace ownership through three shell corporations to the Curacao Islands and its roots to Venezuela," Alderman Burke said. When a Chicago alderman sees an investment cloaked like that, he normally takes notes, not umbrage. Despite his long tenure on the Chicago City Council - he has served since 1969 - Alderman Burke didn't like this corporate shell game.
Venezuelan ownership explained why Venezuelan technicians could be found in restricted counting areas on election night. Results were delayed primarily by failures in remote reporting. More confusion came about because Chicago, unlike Palm Beach County, wasn't satisfied with a single voting system to replace its now-discredited punch-card ballots. The city known for the Election Day battle cry "Vote early and often," gave voters more than one choice.
As if elections aren't hard enough, the city's 2,604 polling places were outfitted with both touch-screen machines (accompanied by printers to create a paper trail) and optical-scan, fill-in-the-bubble ballots. Voters weren't encouraged by Chicago politicians to cast two votes - one on each system - as far as I know. But poll workers didn't know all the subtleties of the new hardware. Many had nothing more than a poorly written manual to go by. Some had been trained by videotape. Most didn't touch the equipment until Election Day.
Alderman Burke started an investigation. He found a smoking gun linking Sequoia to Hugo Chávez. A software company owned by the new owners, Sequoia admits, took a $150,000 loan from the Venezuelan equivalent of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The loan gave the government a temporary ownership position, but it was repaid within a year. That didn't stop Alderman Burke from reminding Chicagoans that Hugo Chávez has been declared by no less than Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "an enemy of the United States."
It's bad enough to be an election equipment maker these days without being linked to Hugo Chávez. Every complaint about any kind of voting system indicts all. It's not too great a leap to the day that Hugo Chávez is blamed for poor screen illumination at King's Point.
Alderman Burke's outrage is easy to understand. After all, in Chicago, counting votes is a time-honored tradition of the city's politicians. No Chicago alderman worth his salt is going to stand for handing that power off to foreigners.
Find this article at: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2006/06/20/m12a_engelhardtcol_0620.html
posted by ConcernedVoter06 at 11:35 AM
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