Voting Machines in Manassas, Virginia

An acquaintance returned from early voting in Manassas, Virginia, quite irate. The stakes are high in this highly unusual once in a lifetime presidential election. As she was waiting for her registration paperwork to be processed, she studied carefully the rear of each of the voting machines that were about three feet from her. She wanted to find out the name of the manufacturer of the machines being used. She noticed a sticker covering the manufacturer’s identification plate on each of the voting machines. The metal plate identifies the company that services the machines. She suspected something unusual as no company would deliberately obscure the make, model, and serial number of the machine which a technician needs in order to properly service the machine when a repair call is made. The voter peeled back the label covering the closest machine to her and the manufacturer plate revealed “AVC Edge.” Some volunteer working there asked her immediately what she was doing but the voter ignored her question. Searching “AVC Edge,” she discovered the following information.

Sequoia manufactured the Dominion AVC Edge voting machines, an approved voting device. “The Sequoia AVC Edge is a touch screen direct-recording electronic voting machine. It is a multilingual voting system activated by a smart card and records votes on internal flash memory.” Sequoia Voting Systems, an election and technology provider, was acquired on March 9, 2005, by Smartmatic, a Boca Raton, Florida “leader in highly secure electronic voting solutions.” Sequoia Voting Systems kept its name in all markets. This acquisition “tripled” Smartmatic’s market share in the U.S. in “less than a year.” “Sequoia was previously held by U.K.-based De La Rue, PLC. Smartmatic, a privately-held firm, acquired Sequoia in order to form a new global leader in providing a full range of electronic voting and election services solutions.” Smartmatic, used in Latin America, Europe, and Asia, was endorsed by former president Jimmy Carter and current president Barack Obama. Smartmatic is a privately held multi-national company with offices in Barbados, U.S., Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, Philippines, and Taiwan. The Chairman of Smartmatic is currently Lord Mark Malloch-Brown. The Virginia voter alleges that “Hillary is tied to the one company that has the power to sway this entire election.” She also stated the fact that the chairman of Smartmatic is a global board member of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. The Virginia voter in question concluded that “So there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that those stickers were purposefully placed over the manufacturer’s identifying plates in order to keep their origin a secret."