Sequoia Voting Systems

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sequoia Voting Systems is a company based in California, and one of the largest providers of electronic voting systems in the US. Some of its main competitors are Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold Election Systems) and Election Systems & Software.

Sequoia has been involved with voting systems for more than 100 years, having invented, at the end of the 19th century, the voting lever machines that are still used today in some US jurisdictions. This firm was part of the Smartmatic family between March 8, 2005, before which it was owned by De La Rue, and November 2007, when it underwent a management buyout.[1] Three Venezuelan engineers, Antonio Mugica, Alfredo Anzola and Roger Piñate founded Smartmatic company during the late 1990s, in order to provide comprehensive infrastructure for a successful implementation and management of device-networking applications, in both electoral and security branches.

Contents

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Venezuelan 2004 presidential election

Sequoia claims to have the only fully secure and fully auditable voting technology in the world today. Some controversy has been brought onto them as the technology of their former parent corporation was used in a recall referendum for president Hugo Chavez in 2004. Chavez won by a healthy margin and the opposition cried fraud. However, reports of the OAS, the EU and the Carter Center validated the results after multiple audits.[2][3][4]

[edit] California decertification/recertification

On August 3, 2007, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen withdrew approval and granted conditional reapproval[5] 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"[5] found "significant security weaknesses throughout the Sequoia system"[6] and "pervasive structural weaknesses"[6] which raise "serious questions as to whether the Sequoia software can be relied upon to protect the integrity of elections."[6]

[edit] “Hanging chads” controversy

In a 2007 investigative report by Dan Rather, Sequoia Voting Systems was implicated, by former employees, in a plot to push electronic voting machines by intentionally manufacturing poor quality paper ballots destined for West Palm Beach, FL in the 2000 presidential election. Former employees stated that the paper and manufacturing process for just the ballots destined for West Palm Beach were outside of normal specifications which caused all of the hanging chads and recount problems. The companies pressmen and quality control departments refused to sign off on the defective ballots forcing the plant manager to personally force the ballots through the manufacturing process.[7]

The New York Times reports that Florida is scheduled to replace all of its touch-screen-based voting machines by July 1, 2008, and that Sequoia has offered to buy them back for $1. However this offer has been refused.[8]

[edit] Ed Felten legal threat controversy

In March 2008, Sequoia sent an e-mail warning Princeton University professors Ed Felten and Andrew Appel of possible legal action after New Jersey election officials had stated that they plan to send one or more Sequoia Advantage voting machines to the Princeton security researchers for analysis. Sequoia announced that they would "take appropriate steps to protect against any publication" of the behavior of Sequoia software.[9] The letter sparked outrage on news and technology websites after Felten confirmed the veracity of rumors about the threats, with one technology website describing the threats as "worrisome" and "disgusting"[10] and Cory Doctorow stating that it is "hard to imagine a stupider legal threat".[11]

Shortly after these events, Sequoia's web site was hacked and temporarily taken down. The hack was originally discovered by Ed Felten. Sequoia Voting Systems announced that its website became inaccessible on evening of March 20 due to unauthorized access. The "intrusive content" was removed as soon as they realized what had happened.[12]

[edit] Continuing control of Sequoia by Venezuelan firm, Smartmatic

In April of 2008, Brad Friedman's The BRAD BLOG reported on a hostile takeover attempt of Sequoia by competitor Hart InterCivic. Court documents unearthed for Friedman's report reveal that Smartmatic retains control over several aspects of Sequoia, including holding a $2 million note used by the management team (SVS Holdings, Inc.) said to have purchased the company from Smartmatic; Intellectual Property rights for all of Sequoia's currently deployed voting systems in the United States, and; the right to negotatiate overseas non-compete agreements.

A follow-up report by Friedman detailed CEO and President of Sequoia and SVS Holdings, Inc., Jack Blaine's admission, to company employees on a conference call, that SVS/Sequoia, in fact, does not control the Intellectual Property of Sequoia voting systems voting machines, but Smartmatic does.

The arrangement seems to be in violations of an agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) who had been reviewing Venezuela's ties to Smartmatic/Sequoia until Smartmatic agreed to divest of the company, in a deal which purportedly sold off all control of Sequoia to SVS, Holdings, Inc.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "U.S. Voting Technology Leader Sequoia Voting Systems Announces New Corporate Ownership", Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc., 2007-11-08. Retrieved on 2008-04-06. 
  2. ^ http://www.cartercenter.org/documents/2021.pdf Carter Center Report
  3. ^ http://www.sap.oas.org/MOE/2003/venezuela/inf_08_15_04_spa.pdf OAS Report
  4. ^ http://www.eueomvenezuela.org/final_report.htm 2005 Venezuelan Parliamentary Elections
  5. ^ a b Withdrawal of Approval of Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc., WinEDS v 3.1.012/AVC Edge/Insight/Optech 400-C DRE & Optical Scan Voting System and Conditional Re-approval of Use of Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc., WinEDS v 3.1.012/AVC Edge/Insight/Optech 400-C DRE & Optical Scan Voting System. California Secretary of State (2007-08-03). Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
  6. ^ a b c Matt Blaze, Arel Cordero, Sophie Engle, Chris Karlof, Naveen Sastry, Micah Sherr, Till Stegers, Ka-Ping Yee (2007-07-20). Source Code Review of the Sequoia Voting System. California Secretary of State. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
  7. ^ Kim Zetter (2007-08-20). Vendors - Sequoia Voting Systems Responsible for 2000 Presidential Debacle? (English). VoteTrustUSA.
  8. ^ Voting Machines Giving Florida New Headache, New York Times, 10/13/2007
  9. ^ Ed Felten (2008-03-17). Interesting e-mail by Sequoia (English).
  10. ^ E-Voting Firm Threatens Ed Felten If He Reviews Its E-Voting Machine (English). Techdirt (2008-03-18).
  11. ^ Cory Doctorow (2008-03-17). Sequoia Voting Systems threatens Felten's Princeton security research team (English). BoingBoing.
  12. ^ Dee Chisamera. "Sequoia Voting Systems Admits To Hackers Attacking Their Website", eFluxMedia, 2008-03-21. 

[edit] External links