May 5, 06 Lou Dobbs - Transcripts - "a disfunctional govt."

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

This is the second show by Lou Dobbs to cover the e-voting issue.
This time, it expands a bit to address the fact that all of the voting machines are owned
by private companies, and that proprietary software is not secure.

Lou Dobbs rush transcripts:

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Smartmatic, based in Boca Raton, provides voting machine in local elections in the United States, like this election in Chicago in March.

But Smartmatic has only five-to-seven people working in Boca Raton, Florida. Smartmatic is a labyrinth of international holding companies owned by Venezuelan businessmen. Smartmatic Group NV of Curacao, Netherlands, Antilles -- owns Smartmatic International BV of Amsterdam, Netherlands, owns Smartmatic Corporation of Florida, which bought Sequoia Voting Systems of California, USA, in 2005.

When Smartmatic bought the U.S. voting machine company Sequoia in 2005, the U.S. government did not review the sale. In discussions with this program today, Smartmatic lawyers admitted, "We were contacted by Treasury about a week ago, and we have provided documents over the last few days."

The big worry for U.S. elections is Smartmatic and other voting machine companies are private companies. They have proprietary software that they can call a trade secret. Electronic voting experts with extensive experience say it's nearly impossible to verify if a proprietary system is tamper-proof.

DOUGLAS JONES, ASSOC. PROF., UNIV. OF IOWA: All of the voting system vendors in the United States are private companies. The problem is the closed-door proprietary nature of the process. The closed system we have right now makes it extremely hard to find out what's going on, and that means that should a thief get in a position of power, we would never know.

PILGRIM: Some voter watchdog groups and others in congress are calling for a full review and say the ownership of all electronic voting companies should be reviewed to determine if it poses a risk to U.S. elections.

The U.S. Treasury Department today would not confirm or deny if a so-called CIFIUS review is under way on Smartmatic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

The U.S. Treasury Department tells us they can review documents for months, even weeks before a 30-day formal review can begin, and then the agency can decide to extend that for another 45 days. What they say they can't tell us is if they are looking into Smartmatic, but that's something the company itself admitted to us today, Lou.

DOBBS: That they were not reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States?

PILGRIM: When they were bought --

DOBBS: That no one at the Treasury Department, no one in this federal government took one look at this transaction.

PILGRIM: They absolutely did not.

DOBBS: And meanwhile, the election people in the federal government have no concept of who they are doing business with, how in the world it will work, whether or not they can assure us that this election in mid-terms in nearly every state is accurate and verifiable.

PILGRIM: In fact, the Chicago officials admitted to us that they thought they were dealing with a Florida, U.S. company.

DOBBS: Well, we know what we're dealing with, and it is a dysfunctional government that is trying to render our elections precisely the same. Kitty, thank you very much, as we will continue reporting on what is an outright threat to our democracy, to the integrity of our voting system, and to our elections process. Thank you, Kitty.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/05/ldt.01.html

[Wilms]

1. Great! KnR n/t

[upi402]

2. a gang of thieves HAVE come to power

and the TV News speaks compliantly only about missing white chicks and clumsy cruisers.

[Kurovski]

3. Lou Dobbs gets this one.

"... an outright threat to our democracy."

Wow. I just never would have dreamed that Mr. Dobbs would begin to take this one on.

K&R

[NoAmericanTaliban]

4. Now they are upset that the voting corp. may be foreign owned, but

they weren't upset that the voting companies were owned by GOP partisans. The real issue is that they are privately owned at all & that the code is not made public - or at least to the gov't. I heard Dobbs last night & am glad that he is jumping on the band wagon - but for him the main point is that o' Victor Chavez might be a part owner. Maybe this will scare the Repukes into getting rid of these private voting boxes, but everything was fine & dandy when they were pulling the strings.

[smoogatz]

5. A somewhat darker take--

Everything in Dobbs' hisotry suggests he's a RW nutjob. I think they're laying the groundwork for a Republican challenge to the '06 election results if the Democrats win back one/both houses of congress.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

6. You may be right. That would explain the sudden interest

in who is behind the voting machines. That was my point. They didn't give a hoot until now & if the Dems win - it may be their argument that the Di Vinci dems won because of Chavez.

[Kurovski]

7. Too early to tell. There may be more evidence of your theory

as Mr. Dobbs continues his series on this subject.

Stay tuned.

I disagree with the characterization of Dobbs as a "nutjob", but I know there is a wide range of opinion regarding the man here on DU. I think the most productive focus will be placed on what is revealed, and how it is revealed in upcoming shows.

Here's tonight's show:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x431959