Voting machine firm seeks U.S. review, denies Chavez ties

[madokie]

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-10-30T020731Z_01_N28456244_RTRUKOC_0_US-ELECTION-USA-MACHINES-CHAVEZ.xml&WTmodLoc=USNewsHome_C2_domesticNews-3

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. maker of electronic voting machines and its parent company said on Sunday they had voluntarily submitted to a federal review and denied any links to the leftist government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The New York Times reported that the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States was conducting a formal inquiry into Smartmatic Corp. and its U.S. subsidiary Sequoia Voting Systems.

"No foreign government or entity -- including Venezuela -- has ever held an ownership stake in Smartmatic, and we have voluntarily filed with CFIUS to put to rest the baseless but persistent rumors about our ownership," Smartmatic Chief Executive Officer Antonio Mugica said in a statement from the company's U.S. headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida.

CFIUS, a multiagency panel headed by the U.S. Treasury Department, approves or rejects foreign takeovers of American companies. Typically, approvals of foreign acquisitions are granted within 30 days unless national security concerns are raised.

[magellan]

1. If I'm not mistaken, didn't CFIUS approve the Dubai Ports deal?

So much for taking their jobs seriously.

No one should be surprised that the Repugs will hold a formal inquiry into Smartmatic but not bother with Diebold. As long as it's proprietary software from a company that supports the GOP, they don't mind.

Every day the Repukes find a new way to run democracy into the ground in favor of partisanship.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. When will we stop Outsourcing our democracy ,Voting Machines..

should have the same Importance in production as currency ,being that it's the coinage of our democracy.Why aren't voting machines made ,inspected and verified in this country ,not by Diebold but by Law enforcement ,throw a couple Billion to ensure democracy.

[madokie]

3. You bet it should, its what our democracy rests on

[C_U_L8R]

4. I smell Diebold

Could this be a little gift from the Bush admin
to destroy Diebold's competition in exchange
for some machine rigging???

The timing couldn't be curious-er.

[madokie]

5. one has to take nothing off the table when one's talking about the bush* cabal