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<\/div>\nOf all of the nefarious schemes and stunts with the potential to change the outcome of the upcoming presidential election, perhaps none is so threatening or consequential as the possibility that electronic voting machines in as many as 15 states could be rigged to ensure that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is the winner.<\/p>\n
Many of the machines in question are made by a private company called Smartmatic Corporation, a company that claims to be based in the United Kingdom but is controlled through holding companies in Venezuela, Barbados and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
The founders of the company are Venezuelan, which is not a coincidence, given that the machines were used in a number of massive landslide elections in that country when President Hugo Chavez was reelected in that country in the 2000s.<\/p>\n
Smartmatic first came to prominence when its machines (many of which were then retrofitted gambling devices) were used in a referendum held in the South American country in 2004.<\/p>\n
Smartmatic machines work by tabulating results independently and then communicating those results to a central server via encrypted messages.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the referendum, independent monitors claimed widespread fraud, and peer-reviewed articles in academic journals stated that it was likely fraud had indeed taken place and that it was possible that this fraud had been committed by remote control.<\/p>\n
Despite these accusations, international election monitors from the European Union and the Organization of American States (OAS) disagreed with these same independent analysts, and the government allowed the result (the administration of President Chavez staying in office) to stand.<\/p>\n
Smartmatic then won a multimillion-dollar contract with the Venezuelan government that saw its machines tabulate huge victories for the Socialist leader before his death from cancer in 2013.<\/p>\n
Smartmatic was officially incorporated in 2000 in Delaware in the U.S., and after 2004, its voting machines were used in a number of controversial leadership races in Brazil (in the election of now ousted [and corrupt] President Dilma Rousseff), Mexico (in the election of highly unpopular president Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto), Argentina (in the election of corruption-tinged President Christina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner) and the Philippines (in the election of controversial new President Rodrigo Duterte).<\/p>\n
It should be noted that one of Smartmatic\u2019s first deployments in the United States was in Cook County, the home of Barack Obama when he was a Senator from Illinois. In March 2006, it was discovered that a problem existed with the Smartmatic software that transferred the results. Things got so bad that one local alderman called the affair an \u201cinternational conspiracy.\u201d Despite this, the state of Illinois continued to use the machines.<\/p>\n
In the 2016 general U.S. election, Smartmatic\u2019s machines potentially could be used in parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Missouri, Louisiana, California, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Florida, Colorado and Arizona. These latter seven states are crucial because they\u2019re swing states that will significantly affect the electoral college totals for each presidential candidate.<\/p>\n
Smartmatic\u2019s website notes that some 57,000 of its machines have been deployed in past U.S. elections between 2006 and 2015, registering the vote of as many as 35 million citizens in 307 counties.<\/p>\n
Prior to 2006, a predecessor company, Sequoia Voting Systems, had its machines used in U.S. elections, and in 2005, Smartmatic acquired Sequoia and then sold it to a group of investors two years later after endowing the firm\u2019s machines with much of Smartmatic\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n
Whether Sequoia\u2019s investors also are owners of Smartmatic is unknown; however, court documents released in 2008 confirmed that Smartmatic still had a significant financial interest in Sequoia. In fact, the CEO and President of Sequoia is a former Smartmatic executive, Jack Blaine, and there is significant shared intellectual property between the companies.<\/p>\n
According to Wikipedia, after 2005, \u201cSmartmatic assigned a major portion of its development and managerial teams, dedicated to revamping some of Sequoia\u2019s old-fashioned, legacy voting machines, and replacing their technology with avant-garde proprietary features and developments, which resulted in new, high-tech products.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wikipedia reports that Sequoia\u2019s older machines were responsible for the \u201changing chad\u201d problems in the state of Florida in the contested presidential election of 2000 and that one Sequoia worker speculated that this was done on purpose \u2014 \u201cthe object was to discredit punch-card ballots and thus promote sales of electronic voting machines,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
The same article relates that the sale of Sequoia was mandated by the American government\u2019s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) because the owners of Smartmatic weren\u2019t U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n
Much of the controversy in this story comes from the ties that Smartmatic has to secretive billionaire financier and deep-pocketed Democratic donor George Soros. Since this story broke, Smartmatic\u2019s website has been updated to read, \u201cGeorge Soros does not have and has never had any ownership stake in Smartmatic.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the website goes on to say that \u201cIt is no secret that our Chairman, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, is a member of a number of non-profit boards addressing global issues from poverty reduction to conflict resolution, including the Global Board of [George Soros\u2019] Open Society Foundation\u2026 Lord Malloch-Brown is a highly respected global figure whose credentials include former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and former Vice-Chairman of the World Economic Forum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soros is a regular speaker at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, and the conclave is known as one of the premier gatherings of globalist financiers and politicians in the world. Though Soros may not have a direct interest in Smartmatic, the admission that there is a connection to the company\u2019s chairman, a member of British nobility, and to the WEF should be very telling.<\/p>\n
Whether Soros has any connection to Sequoia currently is unknown, but why a British lord who has ties to Soros has any interest in voting machines that have been used in American elections should be highly disturbing unto itself.<\/p>\n
While Soros\u2019 name may not be familiar to all Americans, his fingerprints are all over the efforts of the Democratic Party in the 2016 election season. Not only has Soros personally and robustly contributed to Hillary Clinton PACs (political action committees) and Super-PACs, but he\u2019s funded \u201csocial justice warrior\u201d movements such as Black Lives Matter and Millennial Activists United to the tune of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
In this election, Soros is attempting to sway huge numbers of overseas voters for Clinton through the activist Avaaz organization, which he heavily supports. In 2008, Canadian minister of Transport John Baird called Avaaz a \u201cshadowy foreign organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many billionaires, Soros\u2019 spending is not necessarily related to his partisan political feelings or leanings. Instead, Soros has his sights set on the almighty dollar. For decades, Soros\u2019 Open Society Foundations has funded all manner of liberal, progressive and even Socialist causes that have driven deep cultural divisions into U.S. and world populations.<\/p>\n
Soros has openly admitted creating and backing revolutionary political groups in Ukraine, Russia, Croatia, Slovakia and the former Yugoslavia. Most of these groups have or had as their stated goals the destabilization and regime change of the countries in which they are or were based.<\/p>\n
Many of Soros\u2019 investments are linked to funds or financial vehicles that benefit from such destabilization or even collapse of these countries, and the U.S. is no different for Soros. In the world of finance, this is called \u201cdisaster capitalism,\u201d and Soros is probably one of the world\u2019s leading practitioners of it.<\/p>\n
In 1992, Soros famously made a billion dollars in one day by betting against the British pound, driving down the price and \u201cbreaking\u201d the Bank of England\u2019s control over the currency. Soros was blasted during Congressional testimony for his part in the collapse of the Russian economy in the 1990s through his control over economic advisors to Russian president Boris Yeltsin.<\/p>\n
Numerous privatized Russian assets made their way into Soros\u2019 personal portfolio. Jim Leach, then chairman of the House Banking Committee, called Soros\u2019 dealings \u201cone of the greatest social robberies in human history.\u201d<\/p>\n
In November 2003, the resignation of Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze was blamed on anti-government activists funded by Soros. Later, two former executive directors of Soros\u2019 foundation assumed influential roles in the new Georgian government. Of the events that Fall, Soros said, \u201cI\u2019m delighted by what happened in Georgia, and I take great pride in having contributed to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Soros, the world\u2019s political fortunes are just an economic domino game, one that he can effect by applying pressure in the right places. Whereas many investors are content to let politicians make the decisions that will determine political outcomes, Soros is attempting to play puppet master by directing the politicians himself.<\/p>\n
If national governments fall or unpopular leaders are elected, it makes no difference to Soros; he\u2019s only concerned with the monetary outcome.<\/p>\n
In speaking about Soros, New York Times economist Paul Krugman said, \u201c[N]obody who has read a business magazine in the last few years can be unaware that these days there really are investors who not only move money in anticipation of a currency crisis, but actually do their best to trigger that crisis for fun and profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this way, like billionaires the Rockefellers or the Rothschilds, Soros is an unabashed globalist. From his palatial estate in Bedford Hills, New York, the 86-year-old financier and hedge-fund pioneer is pulling strings and making calls in the 2016 election like no other billionaire on the planet.<\/p>\n
The list of organizations financed by Soros is vast and covers groups that promote socialism, drug legalization, UN control of the U.S., abortion rights, radical environmentalism, defense of major terrorist suspects, anti-religion, mass immigration, open borders, amnesty for illegal aliens, socialized medicine (including Obamacare), unilateral American disarmament, and the list goes on. As you can see, Soros\u2019 destabilization agenda is quite transparent from even a cursory perusal of this list.<\/p>\n
If Soros does indeed have influence over Smartmatic and\/or Sequoia, his potential meddling in the U.S. election would be devastating and final, creating an electoral advantage for Hillary Clinton that would be completely impossible for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump to overcome.<\/p>\n
From there, his longtime (since 1992) connections to the Clintons would pay off handsomely as the Clintons are loath to forget any of their billionaire donors, especially globalist heavyweights like Soros.<\/p>\n
Many of Clinton\u2019s already-announced policies would drive Soros\u2019 goals forward, such as a no-fly zone in Syria, which would exacerbate tensions or even cause war with Russia, the extension of Obamacare, further opening of the U.S.\u2019s borders and weakening of its national defenses and military.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We] need people like George Soros,\u201d Clinton said at a \u201cTake Back America\u201d conference, \u201cwho is fearless, and willing to step up [financially] when it counts.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Smartmatic, the company hastily added to its website in October that \u201cSmartmatic will not be deploying its technology in any U.S. county for the upcoming 2016 U.S. Presidential elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, voters should double-check that this will actually be the case when they go to vote \u2014 it\u2019s hard to believe that states contracted to use their machines for the election would switch them out in the last two weeks before the vote.<\/p>\n
Voters should also check to see if machines they\u2019ll be using have the Sequoia mark on them, as the technology inside those machines may be very similar or even identical. Given the strong connection between Smartmatic and Sequoia, the minor differences between the branding on the machines could be a mere detail.<\/p>\n
Look for the name and logo of Smartmatic and Sequoia on the back of any voting machine you use. If it has one of these marks immediately ask an election official for a paper ballot instead of trusting your vote to one of these machines.<\/p>\n
At this late date, it may be too late to void any of the potential interference in the election on the part of George Soros. But in the aftermath, it would pay great dividends for conservatives to discover the true connections of his network as regards the vote and electronic voting machines.<\/p>\n