The Epoch Times has uncovered foreign ties behind voting machines used in the United States.
It found connections between three key voting systems companies: Smartmatic, Sequoia, and Dominion.
Smartmatic began in Venezuela in 1997 when they were known as the “Research and Development Unit of Panagroup in Venezuela.” It was officially incorporated in the United States in 2000 and headquartered in Florida.
But according to a leaked State Department document, Smartmatic allegedly has 30 anonymous investors and silent partners—mostly upper-class Venezuelans.
A former top Venezuelan election official, Ana Mercedes Diaz, was fired in 2004 for publishing information about election fraud there.
She says, “In Venezuela, the opposition was winning, the light went off, and when it came back, the results were flipped. I was following the U.S. election and there came a moment where information stopped … nobody knew what had happened. There was nothing for a few hours—it’s exactly, exactly, exactly how Smartmatic operated in Venezuela.”
In 2005, Smartmatic bought Sequoia Voting Systems, which was based in California. The U.S. government investigated the takeover because of concerns that Smartmatic had ties to Chavez.
In 2006, the Treasury Secretary asked whether Venezuela could use Sequoia to manipulate U.S. elections.
Smartmatic refused to undergo a review and then sold Sequoia. But according to a 2008 lawsuit, Smartmatic still owned Sequoia’s intellectual property.
In 2010, Dominion bought Sequoia Voting systems. Its statement was later scrubbed from the internet—but this copy was saved.
Over 40 percent of American voters cast their ballots through the Dominion system this year. It’s not clear if Dominion used Sequoia software in the recent elections.
Both Dominion and Smartmatic deny any connections to each other or to Sequoia.
Smartmatic told The Epoch Times it hasn’t worked with Dominion since 2009 in the Philippines.
The Epoch Times visited Dominion offices in Denver and Toronto. Both appeared to be abandoned. Smartmatic denied entry to its office in Florida.
