BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

In the debate about the reliability of electronic voting technology, the South Florida parent company of one of the nation's leading suppliers of touch-screen voting machines is drawing special scrutiny from the U.S. government.

Federal officials are investigating whether Smartmatic, owner of Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, is secretly controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, according to two people familiar with the probe.

In July, a Treasury Department spokeswoman disclosed that a Treasury-led panel had contacted Smartmatic, and a company representative said his firm was ''in discussions'' with the panel. At the time, those discussions were informal. The government has now upgraded to a formal investigation, the two sources said.

Sequoia's electronic voting machines operate in 17 states. In Florida, the machines are used in four counties: Palm Beach, Indian River, Pinellas and Hillsborough.

Miami-Dade and Broward use other technology.

Concerns about Smartmatic are keen on the eve of the Nov. 7 election, given fears that someone with unauthorized access to the electronic system could create electoral chaos. Some critics believe that if the Venezuelan government is involved, Smartmatic could be a ''Trojan horse'' designed to advance Chavez's anti-American agenda.

However, officials in all four Florida counties using Sequoia said they were satisfied with the machines and were not concerned about allegations of a Chávez connection because company officials told them the Venezuelan government had no stake in the company.

''We are very satisfied,'' said Kathy Adams, spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections.

The probe stems from a May 4 letter to the Treasury Department by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., raising concerns about Smartmatic's purchase of Sequoia last year. Maloney said she was disturbed by a 2004 article in The Miami Herald revealing that the Venezuelan government owned 28 percent of Bizta -- a company operated by two of the same people who own Smartmatic. Bizta bought back those shares after the article appeared, and Smartmatic now characterizes the deal as a loan.

Bizta and Smartmatic had partnered with Venezuelan telephone giant CANTV to win a $91 million contract to supply electronic voting machines for Venezuelan elections, including the controversial 2004 referendum Chávez won.

Smartmatic categorically denies any link to the Chávez regime. ''Smartmatic is a privately held corporation, and no foreign government or entity -- including Venezuela -- has ever held an ownership stake in the company,'' Mitch Stoller, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail to The Miami Herald.

Remember Diebold?

Well let me refresh your memory. Diebold is a company that operates electronic voting machines. Wally ODell was their CEO. From Wikipedia:

"Walden "Wally" O'Dell was chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Diebold, a US-based security and financial products company. He was an active fundraiser for George W. Bush's re-election campaign and wrote in a fund-raising letter dated August 13, 2003, that he was committed "to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President."[1] His involvement with the campaign raised concerns that, as the CEO of the largest manufacturer of electronic voting equipment, he would have been in a position to manipulate the results of the presidential election of 2004. Since the voting systems of Diebold Election Systems are closed source and do not provide an auditable paper record, it is impossible to establish the integrity of the counts.

In December 2005, O'Dell left the company "for personal reasons" following reports that the company was facing securities fraud litigation surrounding charges of insider trading[2]."

I don't remember any federal investigations focused on Diebold's political ties. Now, a big question is this: What is the difference between these two cases? Diebold is owned by an unabashed, unapologetic, outright Bush supporter and had their machines at some of the most highly contest precincts throughout the country in the last election. Smartmatic has been ACCUSED of being owned partly by the Venezuelan government, though there is no proof of that yet. Diebold has a track record of insider trading and other malfeasance. Smartmatic does not. There are some pretty obvious political motivations for having the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States investigate Smartmatic, say, if they are owned, even partly by Venezuela, then that, if allowed to go unchecked, could lead to the highjacking of democracy by a totalitarian government. And that can NEVER happen in America!

Perhaps this relates back to Diebold. Diebold machines have been called into question, because, well, they're crap. They break down, are easily hacked into (Diebold also operates most of the ATM's you use, scared yet?). So another brand emerged, Smartmatic, with a machine that has shown glitches, in Chicago this spring Sequoia Voting Systems (who merged with Smartmatic in 2005) machines were used in what was dubbed a 'fiasco' by local press. It doesn't matter that Smartmatic machines have had problems, however, not in this day and age, they are a new name and people are always after the newest thing. Diebold is old and moldy, and covered in scandal.

So back to the question why is Smartmatic being investigated by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and Diebold was never investigated in relation to it's connections to Republican politicians who ended up winning their elections? Let's take a look at who is on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

The Secretary of the Treasury - Henry Paulson - Henry Paulson went to Dartmouth and then Harvard (surprised?), upon recieving his MBA he was given a job at the Pentagon, his title was Staff Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense. He later worked for Nixon as John Erlichman's assistant. I'm sure it's safe to say that he met Cheney and Rumsfeld during this time as well. He went from there to Goldman Sachs and had a successful career in business amassing a fortune worth over $700 million. He's the chairman of the Committee.

The Secretary of Commerce - Carlos Gutierrez - Born in Havana to a pineapple plantation owner, his family fled when their land was expropriated. He studied business at Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico. After graduating, he got an entry level sales lob at Kellog's and worked his way up to CEO. In 2005, Bush appointed him Secretary of Commerce. Ah, the American Dream in action.

The Secretary of Defense - Donald Rumsfeld

The Secretary of State - Condoleezza Rice

The Attorney General - Alberto Gonzalez

The Secretary of Homeland Security - Michael Chertoff

The Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors - Edward Lazear - Bachelor's and master's from UCLA, doctorate from Harvard. Most of his career has been spent in academia, with various research groups. He is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute, a public policy think tank which is highly influential in the neoconservative and libertarian movements.

The United States Trade Representative - Susan Schwab - She holds a B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College, a Masters in Development Policy from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Public Administration and International Business from The George Washington University. Has worked in academia and in politics throughout her career, was appointed by GW Bush on June 8, 2006.

The Director of the Office of Management and Budget - Rob Portman - Longtime friend of President Bush and former chief of staff Andy Card, Portman has been in politics most of his career. He has served in congress as a Representative from Ohio, and preceded Susan Schwab as US Trade Representative.

The Director of the National Economic Council - Allan Hubbard - A classmate of George W. Bush at Harvard, Hubbard recieved both his J.D. and his MBA in 1975 (he must have paid attention in class). From 1990 to 1992 he served as deputy chief of staff to the Vice President of the United States.

Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy - John H. Marburger III - Received degrees from Princeton and Stanford, has spent time in various positions in academia. Marburger was appointed to his executive office in 2001, and is a democrat.

The Director of National Intelligence - John Negroponte - Born in London, graduated from Exeter in 1956 and Yale in 1960, where he was a frat brother of William H.T. Bush, uncle of our president, and Porter Goss, former CIA head and Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee. Negroponte has been around and had his nose in a lot of dirty stuff, from Contras, to covering up human rights abuses, the Sandinistas, on and on. I'm sure Drew has a huge file on this guy.

Any other designee of the President from the Executive Office of the President - I could not find a list of the actual members, so I can't tell you, at this point, who the other appointees are. I do have a request for that information with the Treasury Department, so I should find out soon, and will provide updates.

What does this all mean?

First, most of these people would benefit in some way from Diebold having a monopoly on elections, because Republicans (their friends, colleagues, and benefactors) seem to win in precincts that use Diebold machines.

Secondly, I put this together to emphasize how our government presently works, and this committee is a fine example. You notice that all of the familiar faces are involved here, the shining stars of the administration. Then you have a couple of token people that don't really matter very much. Then you have the guys you've never heard of, those are the interesting ones. Those are the ones who are the classmates and friends of the Bush dynasty, the henchmen, or soldiers, if you will. Then you have John Negroponte, probably one of the most powerful and dangerous men in the world.

These people, and people on committees similar to this one, do more to influence public policy than anybody you'll ever vote for, including the president. Our lives are not decided at the ballot box anymore, they are decided by government committees filled with not elected officials, but political appointees. We have no say in what the politics of our policymakers are. The greatest hoax played on the masses today is that their individual vote means anything. As long as we support the government that supports the companies that make the products that keep us sedated, we will not matter.