Smartmatic

Smartmatic
Privately held
Industry Technology, Electronic voting
Founded 2000
Headquarters London, United Kingdom[1], multinational
Key people
 Antonio Mugica, CEO
Products "Elections Solutions", "Identity Management Solutions", "Solutions for Smart Cities"
Website www.smartmatic.com

Smartmatic (also referred as Smartmatic Corp. or Smartmatic International) is a multinational company headquartered in London and incorporated on April 11, 2000, in the State of Delaware, United States. It specializes in the design and deployment of technology-enabled solutions to improve election administration.

Smartmatic is part of the SGO group,[2] a family of ventures founded in 2014 that aim to provide societies, governments and individuals with the tools to address some of the twenty first century's most pressing challenges. SGO, formally known as the SGO Corporation Limited was incorporated in the United Kingdom and is run by a UK Board of Directors chaired by Lord Mark Malloch-Brown.[3]

Smartmatic has been wrongly defined as Venezuelan either because of the birthplace of its founders or the location of its different offices.

As every other company, Smartmatic has a legal personality that is different from that of its owners, directors, founders or employees. A report by Partnership for a New American Economy published in 2011,[4] found that: "Many of America's greatest brands — Apple Inc., Google, AT&T, Budweiser, Colgate, eBay, General Electric, IBM, and McDonald's, to name just a few — owe their origin to a founder who was an immigrant or the child of an immigrant." No one would argue that eBay is French or Google half-Russian just because of the birthplace of their founders (Pierre Omidyar and Sergey Brin, respectively).

Smartmatic has offices in at least 20 countries. A full list of Smartmatic's offices worldwide can be found on its official website. The fact that Smartmatic operates in all these countries, doesn’t make the company Philippine, Taiwanese, Mexican, Brazilian or Venezuelan. Just as it has been called Venezuelan[5][6][7][8] incorrectly, it has also been labelled British ,[9][10] Cuban,[11] Dutch,[12] Barbadian,[13] among other nationalities.

History

US News Newspaper about the Hanging Chads Case in Florida, 2000

In the late 1990s, three engineers, Antonio Mugica, Alfredo José Anzola, and Roger Pinate created a system where thousands of inputs could be placed into a network simultaneously. Early trials of this system were used on ATMs in Mexico, though after the 2000 United States presidential election, Florida recount and the infamous hanging chad episode, they began adapting the system to use it in election administration.

In 2004, Smartmatic's election solution was deployed in Venezuela to enable the country to hold its all-important presidential recall referendum. To do this, Smartmatic formed the SBC Consortium along with CANTV (Venezuela's largest telecommunication company) and Bizta R&D Software SBC.

Since that election, Smartmatic has registered 3.7 billion votes in electoral projects in five continents.

Products

Smartmatic operates through three main business units: Election Solutions, Smart Cities and Identity Management.

Elections Solutions

SAES-3377, a voting machine developed by Smartmatic

Smartmatic offers an end-to-end suite of technology and services to help election commissions run their elections.

The portfolio of solutions is divided into four basic areas: Voter Management Solutions, Polling Place Voting Solutions, Remote Voting Solutions and the Election Management Platform.

Voter management solutions encompass all the technologies and services required to assist election commissions in organizing voters.

Polling Place Voting Solutions comprise voting machines and optical scanners used to register, store and process the will of voters. This area also focuses on providing solutions to help poll workers conduct complex electoral processes on election night. In addition to voting machines and optical scanners, it includes technology to allow poll workers to authenticate voters, open and close the polling station, report incidents and transmit results.

Remote Voting Solutions to offer remote voters additional channels to cast their ballots online. This area services both governmental and private sector elections.

The Election Management Platform area comprises different solutions to manage various tasks associated with election administration. It includes software and services to register and vet candidates, manage voter databases and voter authentication, monitor election events among many other important tasks.

Solutions for Smart Cities

Bus of Transcaribe circulating in front of the Clock Tower, representative symbol of Cartagena and main door to the walled city. Source: Transcaribe

This unit comprises security applications for government critical mission projects, such as Public Safety Platforms, Public Transport Systems, Emergency Management Solutions and Census Projects. The services portfolio includes concept and design, technology development, technology implementation and operation, as well as maintenance and support.

In 2016, the Colombian city of Cartagena inaugurated its Transcaribe massive transport system, which is operated by a Smartmatic-led consortium. During the official inauguration ceremony, the President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos stated "It is so good to be able to deliver this great work to Cartagena! Take advantage of Transcaribe so that Cartagena becomes better and people enjoy their families and free time."[14]

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, software and deployment services for solutions aiming to improve citizen's quality of life.

In 2015, the Bataan province in the Philippines inaugurated a Command and control Center designed by Smartmatic.[15]

Identity management

Haiti's National Identification Office providing a new registration system

Smartmatic Identity Management Solutions enable government agencies to manage people's biographic and biometric information. Products and services include identity card programs, immigration and border control, welfare and social benefit distribution programs, civil and voter registration. 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.

In 2012 Smartmatic partnered with the state of Haiti to modernize its Civil Registry and Identification System. Three years later, this knowledge and technology transfer project was completed.[16]

Elections

The company was contracted in 2004 for the automation of electoral processes in Venezuela. Since 2004, its election technology has been used in local and national elections in: Venezuela, United States, Belgium, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, the United Kingdom, Mexico, the Philippines, Bulgaria ,[17][18] Zambia, Uganda,[19] among many others.

Some of its most relevant elections are:

Belgium

Smartmatic has participated in the following Belgian elections: 2012 Local Provincial elections, 2012 Local Municipal elections, 2014 Regional parliament, 2014 Federal parliament and 2014 European Union parliament.

On October 14, 2012,[20] Belgium utilized Smartmatic's technology and managed services to carry out regional elections in 153 communes in the Flanders and Brussels-Capital regions.[21]

Brazil

Smartmatic has provided election support services in three national elections in Brazil.

In 2012, Smartmatic offered Brazil's Superior Electoral Court support for data and voice communications to the 16 most isolated states in Brazil, and also battery power support to voting machines.[22] These services implied hiring and training 14,000 technicians who worked at 480,000 polling stations, servicing over 500,000 pieces of election equipment.[23]

In 2014 and 2016 Smartmatic again helped Brazilian authorities with data and voice communications from the 16 most isolated states.[24]

Philippines

The project to automate the Philippine elections had been met with vociferous opposition from the beginning. Several groups which were benefiting from the traditionally fraudulent conduct of Philippines polls[25] found themselves facing great political and economic loss with the promised transparency and auditability of the automated elections system. The adoption of Smartmatic was overseen by the Philippines' the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

2008 Philippine regional elections

On 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,[26] 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.[27][28]

2010 Philippine general election

In May 2010, Smartmatic automated the National Elections in the Republic of the Philippines. Election Day was Monday, May 10, 2010 with live, full coverage from ABS-CBN, ANC and GMA Network. The elected president became the 15th President of the Philippines, succeeding President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was barred from seeking re-election due to term restrictions. The successor of the Vice-President Noli de Castro is the 15th Vice President of the Philippines. Legislators elected in these 2010 elections joined the senators of the 2007 elections and comprised the 15th Congress of the Philippines.[29]

On June 29, 2010, the Philippine Computer Society (PCS) filed a complaint with the country's Ombudsman against 17 officials of the Commission on Elections and the Smartmatic-TIM Corp. for alleged "incompetence," graft and unethical conduct.[30] A survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that a majority (75%) of Filipinos were very satisfied with the conduct of the automated elections.[31] The survey also found that voters regarded the 2010 elections one of the most-credible and transparent in Philippine history.

2016 Philippine presidential election

A voter introducing the ballot in the VCM during the Philippine elections, 2016

By this time, only the truly uninformed would still find Smartmatic's combination of PCOS/VCM and CCS an acceptable solution to the automation of Philippine elections. We used this solution in the last three National and Local Elections and in all three, we experienced "glitches" and lack of transparency that convinced us of the system's unreliability and its vulnerability to tampering.

The Manila Times [32]

2016 General Elections - Voter perception According to a survey conducted by Pulse Asia after the elections:

  • 92% of respondents thought that the release of the results was fast
  • 89% believed the results are credible
  • 89% would like to see automated voting in future elections
  • 93% considered voting was easy.

Rappler,[33] Malaya,[34] and Pulse Asia[35]

On May 9, 2016, the Philippines conducted its third national automated election. According to NAMFREL (National Movement for Free Elections), a prominent civil society group that has been monitoring elections since the 1980s, the 2016 elections had "been managed far better than the past two automated elections held in 2010 and 2013... and the electorate seems to have more confidence in the election system this year compared to the past."[36]

A survey conducted by Philippine pollster Pulse Asia revealed that 88% of Filipinos want future elections to be automated, 89 percent of Filipinos think the election results are believable, and 93% described the elections as orderly.[37]

The majority of the foreign delegates who observed the conduct of the elections commended the exercise for its orderly conduct and were particularly appreciative of the high acceptability of results. US President Barack Obama praised the successful elections as "emblematic of the vibrant democracy in the Philippines."[38]

Days after the May 2016 elections, Bongbong Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, alleged that Smartmatic had tampered with the votes which cost him being elected Vice President of the Philippines and criminal proceedings were filed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) against Comelec personnel as well as Smartmatic employees, with Election Commissioner Rowena Guanzon stating that Smartmatic had violated protocols.[6] After a Smartmatic employee fled the country, Bongbong Marcos accused the Comlec for his "escape", though two other Smartmatic personnel, one from Venezuela and the other from Israel, were present for criminal proceedings.[39] In July 2016, it was revealed that Smartmatic funneled votes through "unofficial servers".[40] In October 2016, The Manila Times called on all members of Comelec to resign due to the "innumerable controversies since its adoption of the Smartmatic-based Automated Election System".[41]

In October 2016, the Manila Prosecutors Office dismissed the accusations made by the camp of Bongbong Marcos Jr.[42]

Venezuela

Smartmatic has been the main technology supplier for the last fourteen Venezuelan national elections. These are: 2004 Presidential Recall Election, 2005 Regional Elections, 2005 Municipal and Parrish Elections, 2005 Parliamentary Elections, 2006 Presidential Elections, 2007 Constitutional Referendum, 2008 Regional Elections, 2009 Constitutional Amendment Referendum, 2010 Parliamentary Elections, 2012 Presidential Elections, 2012 Regional Elections, 2013 Presidential Elections, 2013 Regional Elections and 2015 Parliamentary Elections.[43]

Controversy

Funding

Smartmatic was funded by an initial US$2M investment from the Mugica and Piñate families in year 2000. Shortly thereafter am Angel's round saw an investment of an additional US$2M led by industrialist family Massa. The company has been self-funded thereafter.

Wikileaks info

The info below appeared in Wikileaks, supposedly as US embassy leaked info, but has never been confirmed. The data below is factually wrong but quoted for your benefit: "Links to the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela have raised suspicions that Smartmatic may have been funded by the Bolivarian government. The company went from a small start-up to a major electronic voting company in a few years.[5] Venezuelan previously existing laws that were established before the Bolivarian Revolution stated that automated voting was required in Venezuela, with United States firm Election Systems & Software and Spanish company Indra Sistemas already being used in the country.[5] However, after Venezuelans demanded a recall referendum against President Hugo Chávez, the pro-Chávez electoral board, the National Electoral Council (CNE), contracted Smartmatic to produce automated voting machines paying the company $128 million, with Smartmatic retrofitting gambling machines to be used for the process.[5] Affiliations with Bolivarian government politicians raised suspicions, with instances of an interior vice minister, Morris Loyo, being hired to lobby for Smartmatic contracts and with the company paying for the CNE president Jorge Rodríguez to stay at a private resort in Boca Raton, Florida".[5]

In spite all these rumors, relevant observation missions have validated the Venezuelan elections conducted using Smartmatic technology. In September 2012 former US President Jimmy Carter said "the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world".

In 2006, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza said: "we had no objection. It was fair" and that Venezuela "has a strong electoral system that is technically very good."

The Report of the EU Observer Mission to the 2006 Venezuelan presidential election stated that it was overall conducted "in respect of national laws and international standards," with "a high turnout, and peaceful atmosphere".[44]

2004 Venezuela recall referendum

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 (1988).[45][46]

After the referendum, independent election monitors claimed fraud and submitted appeals, and statistical evaluations including a peer-reviewed article in 2006[47] and a special section of 6-peer-reviewed article in 2011[48] concluded that it was likely that electronic election fraud had been committed. The analysis of communication patterns allowed for the hypothesis that the data in the machines could have been changed remotely, while another of the articles suggested that the outcome could have been altered from about 60% against the sitting president, to 58% for the sitting president.

Yet, representatives from international election observation agencies attested that the election conducted using SAES was at that time fair, accurate and compliant with the accepted timing and reliability criteria. These agencies included the Carter Center,[49] the Organization of American States (OAS),[50] and the European Union (EU).[51][52][53][54][55]

Acquisition and divestiture of Sequoia

In 2005, Smartmatic acquired Sequoia Voting Systems, one of the leading US companies in automated voting products.[56] Following this acquisition, Carolyn B. Maloney requested an investigation to determine whether the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a committee of the United States Department of the Treasury that reviews whether companies in the United States are being controlled by foreign individuals, had followed correct processes to green-light sale of Sequoia to Smartmatic, which was described as having " possible ties to the Venezuelan government".[57]

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.[58] According to Sequoia, the tabulation problems were due to human error, as a post-election check identified only three mechanical problems in 1000 machines checked.[58] Election officials blamed poor training.[59] Some problems with the election were later blamed on a software component, developed in Venezuela, for transmitting the voting results to a central computer.[60] A local alderman said the troubles could be due to an "international conspiracy".[58]

After initially cooperating with the CFIUS investigation in October 2006, particularly to clarify the company's ownership,[61] Smartmatic withdrew in December 2006 and sold Sequoia.[62]

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,[63] one of the largest contracts ever in the voting technology industry. In the bidding process, Sequoia was disqualified early on,[64] while Smartmatic was declared the winner.[65][66]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Smartmatic Worldwide Headquarters".
  2. ↑ Lord Mark Malloch-Brown to chair election technology group SGO (Financial Times
  3. ↑ Mayhew, Stephen (November 2014). "Smartmatic spins off new parent company, SGO, with British lord".
  4. ↑ Uy, American Economy (June 2011). "The New American Fortune 500" (PDF).
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Brownfield, William (10 July 2006). CARACAS' VIEW OF SMARTMATIC AND ITS VOTING MACHINES. Caracas, Venezuela: Embassy of the United States, Caracas.
  6. 1 2 Uy, Jocelyn R. (14 May 2016). "Smartmatic faces probe". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  7. ↑ Addison, Adrian. "Electronic voting no threat yet to the old style ballot box". Phys.org. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  8. ↑ Essers, Loek. "Belgian Region's Decision to Use New Voting Machines Reignites E-voting Debate". CIO. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  9. ↑ Mock, Brentin (Oct 2015). "The Future of U.S. Voting May Be U.K. Technology".
  10. ↑ Elected, Blog (Jan 2015). "Election automation in the Philippines: a snapshot".
  11. ↑ Oantagonista, Blog (Jan 2015). "Brasil Patria Da Contabilidade Criativa".
  12. ↑ Digital, Vote (March 2015). "From Manual to Electronic Voting: Venezuela's Success Story in Achieving Fairness and Trust".
  13. ↑ Diigen, Companies Worldwide. "Smartmatic International Corporation, Barbados".
  14. ↑ Presidente Santos inaugura sistema de transporte masivo Transcaribe en Cartagena (Presidencia de la República, Marzo 2016)
  15. ↑ Cigaral, Mhike (June 2015). "Garcia to inaugurate 1Bataan Command Center".
  16. ↑ Haiti-technologie:la compagnie Smartmatic en Haiti pour l'enrigistrement civil (November, 2013)
  17. ↑ Cerulus, Laurens (August 2014). "e-Democracy entrepreneur: 'Online voting will boom in coming years'".
  18. ↑ En Italia y en Bulgaria usan máquinas para voto electrónico (May 2014)
  19. ↑ Mugerwa, Sydney (February 2016). "2016 Uganda Elections Biometric Voter Verification System: How Feasible is it?".
  20. ↑ Belgium makes a new bet on e-voting (October 2012)
  21. ↑ González, Carlos (July 2012). "The New Belgian E-voting System" (PDF).
  22. ↑ Brazil Offering a Model for U.S. Elections? (2012)
  23. ↑ Brazil: Smartmatic Wins Election Services in Brazil, the Largest Market in Latin America | GNT (July 2012)
  24. ↑ Contrato entre Tribunal Superior Electoral de Brasil y Smartmatic del año 2012 (2012)
  25. ↑ Pimentel says automation will put fraud syndicates out of business
  26. ↑ Autonomous Region Muslim Mindanao 2008 Philippines
  27. ↑ Manila Standard Today: Automated machines delivered — Comelec
  28. ↑ Manila Standard Today: E-voting makes a splash
  29. ↑ Noli de Castro still top pick for 2010 - SWS
  30. ↑ Inquirer.Net: Graft raps filed vs Smartmatic, Comelec execs
  31. ↑ SWS: 3 out of 4 Pinoys satisfied with May polls
  32. ↑ "Never again! …to Smartmatic - The Manila Times Online". The Manila Times. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  33. ↑ 2016 elections 'more credible' than 2010 polls – survey
  34. ↑ 8 of 10 Filipinos prefer automated elections
  35. ↑ Pulse Asia Research 2016
  36. ↑ Namfrel: Higher voter confidence, turnout in 2016 polls
  37. ↑ Most Pinoys believe May 9 polls credible – Pulse Asia
  38. ↑ Readout of the President's Call with Presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines
  39. ↑ "Comelec hit for escape of Smartmatic engineer - The Manila Times Online". The Manila Times. 19 June 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  40. ↑ Pilapil, Jaime (22 July 2016). "Smartmatic admits using unofficial servers". The Manila Times. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  41. ↑ "Defying the Supreme Court, the Comelec should resign en banc - The Manila Times Online". The Manila Times. 16 October 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  42. ↑ Comelec, Smartmatic cleared of tampering with May poll servers
  43. ↑ Carasik, Lauren (November 2015). "Venezuela's electoral system is being unfairly maligned".
  44. ↑ Facts about Venezuela's Presidential Elections and the Voting Process (October 2012)
  45. ↑ Ley Orgánica del Poder Electoral - Consejo Nacional Electoral (2002)
  46. ↑ Ley Orgánica del Sufragio y Participación Política - Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (1988)
  47. ↑ Maria M. Febres Cordero, Bernardo Márquez (2006), "A Statistical Approach to Assess Referendum Results: the Venezuelan Recall Referendum 2004", International Statistical Review, 74(3)
  48. ↑ Special Section: Revisiting the 2004 Venezuelan Referendum, Statistical Science, 26(4), November 2011
  49. ↑ 41102_Report
  50. ↑ http://www.sap.oas.org/MOE/2003/venezuela/inf_08_15_04_spa.pdf
  51. ↑ Comentarios generales:
  52. ↑ Carter Center Observing the Venezuela Presidential Recall Referendum (2004)
  53. ↑ OAS Report Venezuela Presidential Recall Referendum
  54. ↑ EU EOM Venezuelan Parliamentary Elections 2005
  55. ↑ EU EOM Final Report Venezuela 2006
  56. ↑ Business Wire, 9 March 2005, Sequoia Voting Systems and Smartmatic Combine to Form Global Leader in Electronic Voting Solutions
  57. ↑ U.S. Voting Machine Company's Possible Ties to Foreign Government Draws Congressional Inquiry
  58. 1 2 3 ABC Local, 7 April 2006, Alderman: Election Day troubles could be part of 'international conspiracy'
  59. ↑ Chicago Tribune, 23 March 2006, New machines, poor training slowed count: Precincts uncounted even after Wednesday
  60. ↑ New York Times, 29 October 2006, U.S. Investigates Voting Machines’ Venezuela Ties
  61. ↑
  62. ↑ Bob Davis, Wall Street Journal, 22 December 2006, Smartmatic to Shed U.S. Unit, End Probe into Venezuelan Links
  63. ↑ Comelec disqualifies 2 more bidders for P11-billion automation contract The Philippine Star (May 06, 2009)
  64. ↑ 2010 Elections: Poll Automation Timeline GMA Research (July 3, 2009)
  65. ↑ Smartmatic/TIM consortium is virtually the winner of the poll automation contract -- Comelec Positive News Media, Philippines (June 4, 2009)
  66. ↑ The 2010 Automated Polls Computerworld Philippines (July 21, 2009)
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