Smartmatic - Wikipedia
Smartmatic (also referred as Smartmatic Corp. or Smartmatic International) is a multinational corporation founded in 2000 that specializes in the design and deployment of complex purpose-specific technology solutions.
It is organized around three business units: Electronic voting systems, integrated security systems, and biometric systems for people registration and authentication for government applications.
Smartmatic has offices in the USA, Brazil, Venezuela, Barbados, Spain, Philippines and Taiwan.
Electronic voting
SAES ("Smartmatic Auditable Elections System") is an electronic voting system comprising hardware (voting machines), the software operative in same, election management software, and canvassing software for a central location's servers. It includes several security mechanisms, such as encryption using a public key infrastructure (PKI) with 2048-bit digital certificates.
The hardware includes voting machine models with voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT), redundant memory, integrated printer, a touch screen supporting multiple-choice election processes, tactile remote control, earphones and sip and puff device for disabled voters, and an add-on voting pad device for use in complex elections.
The software comprises an Electoral Management System (EMS), which manages the data on candidates, electoral seats and political parties, etc., that define and configure an election. The Election Day Management Platform (EDMP) suite of management tools directs technicians and operators installing and manning the voting centers using voting machines. It monitors in real time the installation the opening, closing and auditing of the polling booths; the transmission of results and the backing up of data during the event.
Security applications
USP ("Smartmatic’s Unified Security Platform") automates the interaction between network devices, operators, end users, and security-specific applications. It is designed to provide an end-to-end solution for emergency response using technology to support the handling of emergency calls and to provide immediate responses. It includes hardware for controllers, IP cameras / DVRs, a car PC, and associated sensors. The software SmartCad includes: call center and dispatch modules, telephone service and elements related to first level emergency handling, cartographic interface, evaluation of service quality and operator performance, coordination of personnel, shift management and workload balancing between operators, reports and graphic representation of data.
Identity management
SIMS ("Smartmatic Identity Management Solutions") enables government agencies to manage people's biographic and biometric information securely, from voter registration to civil registry, from immigration control to national identity projects. It uses both specialized mobile devices for enrollment of people in field applications and an integrated system for stationary use. It includes ID management software, and a back-office system for data consolidation and safeguard.
Major implementations
The company was contracted in 2004 for the automation of electoral processes in Venezuela. Since 2004, SAES technology has been used in eight national elections in Venezuela, USA and Curaçao. Its mileage includes more than one hundred fifty million registered votes, each with a voter-verified printed receipt, cast using some 35,000 voting machines installed in some 11,000 poll centers.[citation needed] On May 10, 2010, the technology will be used to carry out the automated elections in the Philippines.
In August 11, 2008, automated regional elections were held in the Philippines' Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). In the Maguindanao province, voters used Smartmatic's electronic voting machines[1], while voters in the other 5 provinces (Shariff Kabunsuan, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi) used manually marked ballots processed using OMR technology. The overall reaction of both the public and authorities was positive toward the solution.[2][3]
USP was installed in more than 500 branches of Santander-Serfin Bank, (Mexico). Since 2006, the Office of the Mayor of Metropolitan Caracas in Venezuela began the installation of the integrated public security system that helps authorities to provide immediate responses to citizens whose safety has been jeopardized.
Venezuela 2004 vote
After the presidential recall referendum of 2004 in Venezuela, some controversy was raised about the use of electronic voting (SAES voting machines) in that country. The legal basis for this process of automation is found in Article 33(42) of the LOPE (2002), and in Article 154 of the LOSPP (198
.[4]
After the referendum, segments of the opposition cried fraud and submitted appeals as well as several technical reports, yet, representatives from internationally election observation agencies attested that elections conducted using SAES were at that time and have been (in the following elections) fair, accurate and complying with accepted timing and reliability criteria. These agencies include the Carter Center[5], the Organization of American States (OAS)[6], and the European Union (EU)[7] [8][9][10][11]
Acquisition and disposal of Sequoia
In 2005 Smartmatic acquired Sequoia Voting Systems, one of the leading US companies in the field.[12] Following this acquisition, Carolyn B. Maloney requested an investigation to determine whether CFIUS processes had been followed to green-light sale of Sequoia to a company "with possible ties to the Venezuelan government".[13]
The investigation was prompted after a March 2006 electoral fiasco in Chicago and Cook County, where a percentage of the machines involved were manufactured by Sequoia, and Sequoia provided technical assistance, some by a number of Venezuelan nationals flown in for the event.[14] According to Sequoia the tabulation problems were due to human error, as a post-election check identified only 3 mechanical problems in 1000 machines checked.[14] Election officials blamed poor training.[15] Some problems with the election were later blamed on a software component, developed in Venezuela, for transmitting the voting results to a central computer.[16] A local alderman said the troubles could be due to an "international conspiracy".[14]
After initially cooperating with the CFIUS investigation in October 2006 in particular to clarify the company's ownership,[17] Smartmatic withdrew in December 2006 and sold Sequoia.[18]
Among other vendors, in the 2nd quarter of 2009 Smartmatic and Sequoia competed against each other for the contract to provide voting machines and services to the 2010 national elections in the Philippines,[19] one of the largest contracts ever in the voting technology industry. In the bidding process Sequoia was disqualified early, while Smartmatic was declared the winner.[20][21]
Identity of Smartmatic in the Philippines questioned by journalists
The integrity of the Smartmatic's involvement in the Philippine elections is being questioned by many journalists and critics from the blogging community. One writer mentioned how Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her allies were able to fool the public into thinking that the contract the Philippine Commission on Elections entered into was with the Venezuelan-connected Dutch incorporated foreign corporation, Smartmatic.
The writer claims that it was not so because it was actually with a Philippine-registered corporation called Smartmatic Sahi Technology Inc., which was allegedly incorporated only on March 23, 2008 and where the primary shareholder is Cezar Quiambao and his family – a golfing buddy of the First Gentleman, who is also being accused of being involved in a plot to rig the elections.
Quiambao is said to have acquired huge computer and infrastructure contracts from the Philippine government and was also involved with the scandalous Radstock case.[22][23]
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-= Smartmatic Voting Machines =-
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