Government Oversight: There is no federal agency that has regulatory authority over the elections industry according to Brian Hancock, spokesperson for the Federal Election Commission (FEC), and Jorge Martinez, spokesperson for the Department of Justice (DOJ). No agency or organization even has a complete list of voting machine companies. Using a rough estimate, there are about 70 voting machine companies worldwide, with at least 48 based in the U.S.. The FEC lists only 19, the Texas-based National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) lists 16 that are 'industry certified' (which are outmoded and voluntary guidelines), while the IFES Buyers Guide lists about 64 companies worldwide that appear to be engaged in electronic voting. Meanwhile there is one company that is 'flying under the radar' of both the FEC and NASED, that is the Bermuda-based Accenture (formally Andersen Consulting) that has the contract for the online military vote in 2004. 

Ownership:  There are no government standards or restrictions on who can sell and service voting machines and systems. Foreigners, convicted criminals, office holders, political candidates, and news media organizations can and do own these companies. It appears that these companies are dominated by members of the Republican Party and foreign investors. Jack Kemp, a former GOP candidate for vice president in 1996 and a possible candidate for Governor of California this year, is on the board of directors for Election.com, while Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) was the past president of the company (AIS) that counted the votes in his first election and an investor in the company (ES&S) that counted the votes in his second election. At least four companies are foreign-owned: Sequoia (UK), Accenture/Election.com (UK Bermuda), EVS (Japan), and N.V. Nederlandsche Apparatenfabriek (Netherlands). Election.com was formerly owned by Osan, Ltd., a Saudi Arabian firm. Many voting machine companies appear to share managers, investors, and equipment which raises questions of conflict-of-interest and monopolistic practices. 

NOTES & LINKS

• Orange = media ownership

• Purple = politician ownership

• Brown = defense industry - LIST: http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/list.aspx?act=top

• Red = CIA/NSA intelligence agencies

• Yellow = general stuff

ORGANIZATIONS / COMPANY LISTS
(Note: I have found no complete list of vendors, lists must be cross-checked)

• Federal Election Commission (FEC) - 19 companies listed - http://www.fec.gov/pages/vendorslist.htm

• National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) list of 16 industry "certified" vendors (the certification is technically outmoded and meaningless according to computer professionals such as Dr. Rebecca Mercuri)  - http://www.nased.org/NASEDApprovedSystems1.03.pdf /  http://www.nased.org/ITA_process.htm 

• The IFES http://www.IFES.ORG worldwide Buyer's Guide http://www.ifesbuyersguide.org/ for voting equipment - largest list of companies (approx 100 vendors - around 64 appear to offer electronic election services, but list does not include several vendors on FEC list. Read more about IFES below. (This was the old url for the Buyer's Guide - http://www.ifesbuyersguide.org/detailtest.php?title=Regions&subtitle=Middle_East)

• National Workshop on Internet Voting / see Aug 27, 03: Internet Voting - The End of Democracy?

Check out: National Workshop on Internet Voting / see Aug 27, 03: Internet Voting - The End of Democracy?

COMPANIES:

The voting systems companies listed below seem to be in a constant state of changed names and/or ownership. Editor welcomes leads. Send to lynnlandes@earthlink.net 

ES&S - election Systems and Software http://www.essvote.com/

Update: http://www.theportlandalliance.org/2006/aug/election2006.htm "What is known about the company’s ownership, dug up by Harris, points to a twisty trail of criminality, conflict of interest and non-disclosure. In 1987 the Omaha World-Herald purchased 47 percent stake in the company, and the McCarthy Group bought 35 percent. The Omaha World-Herald, in turn, is owned by the Peter Kiewit Foundation. Harris contends that Kiewit is just about the last company that should have anything to do with an election system vendor. Kiewit and its subsidiaries have been involved in as many as 11 cases of bid-rigging on road contracts and state and federal highway projects. With convictions in Louisiana, South Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska, the companies have paid millions of dollars in fines. “Kiewit has connections with both ES&S parent companies and has a track record of hiding ownership when it wants to,” says Harris. “It has a powerful profit motive for getting the people it wants into office and it has broken the law in the past to achieve its goals.”"

• 56% of U.S. vote count: Probably the largest voting machine company. ES&S claims that they tabulated "56% of the U.S. national vote for the past four presidential elections."  source: http://www.essvote.com/

• Company official description: Full Service. ES&S "...handle(s) more than 40,000 of the world's most important events and elections. In the U.S. 2000 general election, ES&S systems counted over 100 million ballots." source:http://www.essvote.com/

• Established: 1999

• Ownership: The World Companies (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Omaha World-Herald Company), The McCarthy Group (an Omaha investment banking company - http://www.mccarthygroupinc.com/index.php3?g=1&p=4 whose primary investor is World Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Omaha World-Herald Co.), Business Records Corp. (BRC), and American Information Systems (AIS) employees. source:http://www.talion.com/election-machines.html

• History:  In 1999, American Information Systems (AIS), purchased Business Records Corp (BRC) to become ES&S

  • American Information Systems (AIS): 

    • AIS (1980) was formerly Data Mark (1979), both founded by brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich. Bob is currently president of Diebold (see below). Todd Urosevich is Vice President, Aftermarket Sales of ES&S.

    • AIS was primarily funded with money from Ahmanson brothers, William and Robert, of H.F. Ahmanson Co., holding company for the nation's largest savings and loan association and a group of Omaha-based insurance companies, at the time. http://www.essvote.com/index.php?section=exec&rightnav=about&f_exec_id=4

    •   Howard Ahmanson belongs to Council for National Policy (hard right wing organization) http://www.ifas.org/cnp/name98.html. Howard Ahmanson also helps finance The Chalcedon Institute: "Established in 1965, Chalcedon (kal-SEE-dun) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) and Christian educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and promoting Christian reconstruction in all areas of life... Our emphasis on the Cultural or Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:28) and the necessity of a return to Biblical Law has been a a crucial factor in the challenge to Humanism by Christians in this country and elsewhere... A world that is increasingly pessimistic and disillusioned with the failure of secular Humanism is now feeling the impact of Christians who are exercising dominion and reclaiming lost spheres of authority for Christ the King." http://www.chalcedon.edu/ / critical profile: the organization's purpose is to establish Old Testament Biblical law as the standard for society. Chalcedon promotes Christian Reconstructionism -- which mandates Christ's dominion over all the world. http://www.ifas.org/fw/9501/chalcedon.html 

    • Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) was Chairman of the Board of AIS (resigned 1995) and was also president of McCarthy & Company (resigned 1996). Michael R. McCarthy is Hagel's current campaign treasurer. source: http://www.csd.cq.com/senate_mem/s0531.html / Hagel may still be an investor in the McCarthy Group, see http://www.talion.com/Hagel.html 

  •   Business Records Corp was/is part of Cronus: (Substantial Hunt family influence) source: http://www.talion.com/election-machines.html  

    • Rosewood Financial Partners [Caroline Hunt, the youngest daughter of legendary oilman H. L. Hunt]: 6%; (more Hunt info below)

    • Alex Sheshunoff 5.32% http://www.ashesh.com/Sheshunoff/home.nsf/homepage?openform http://www.sheshunoff.com/index.html - Alex Sheshunoff was nailed for insider trading on Business Records Corp.He owned more of Business Records Corp. than I thought. He was given a cease and desist order in litigation against him, and apparently paid a fine in a settlement for the case. The SEC nailed him for manipulating the stock price of BRC using a technique called "marking the close." By
      1995, he had increased his holdings to over 8%. I got my info from an SEC insider trading lawsuit pertaining to Business Records Corp against him. The web address of the SEC filing against Sheshunoff is http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/3437419.txt  

      • SEC case: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/3437419.txt  - insider trading for BRC by Alexander  Sheshunoff, Sr.,  age 56,  a resident of  Austin, Texas SEC action July 11 1996 Business Records Corporation ("BRC"), formerly known as  Cronus Industries, Inc., is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.  BRC  specializes in  providing election  services and  land records  management  to  state  and  local governments  and  municipalities. general source: www.talion.com 

    • Charter Oak Partners 9.97% P.E. Esping (now dead) http://www.charter-oak.com/, founded in 1990 as an affiliate of Rothschild Realty Inc., which is an affiliate of Rothschild, Inc. http://www2.nmrothschild.com/home/ 11.7%, 

    • C.A. Rundell (don't know what%), Chairman of Cronus and CEO of Integrated Securities Systems, Inc. http://www.integratedsecurity.com/pressrel/20000821.html / A public company, Integrated's major stockholders are two funds managed by Dallas-based Renaissance Capital Group Inc.: Renaissance U.S. Growth & Income Trust P.L.C., known as Rusgit, and Renaissance Three. http://www.rencapital.com/ / http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2001/10/22/story8.html / A Dain Rauscher director http://www.rbcdain.com/DRP_1.0/Public_Site/Home/DRP_1.0VDynamicHome/1,37985,,00.html source - http://www.tamirfishman.com/pr_20000928.html  

      • C. A. Rundell, Jr., chairman and CEO of Cronus, a company which in 1985 claimed to have about 40% of the election-service market, replying to a reporter's question regarding which jurisdictions their equipment would be counting votes in 1988 - "We certainly are not going to provide you with a list of customers and the kinds of systems they have." "We've got to ask how much competitive intelligence we divulge to our competition." [New Yorker, November 7, 1988] http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/cfp93/mercuri.html / 

    • Ed Belanger (don't know what%) http://www.cds-technologies.com/ ?"We are in a wireless age," said Ed Belanger, president and CEO of CDS Technologies, "and the need for information anywhere, anytime is critical to progressive business. This driver gives QNX developers the 'edge' in the marketplace." source: http://www.swd.de/news/press/010306_en.html / http://www.cds-technologies.com/ 

    • Buttonwood Capital Corp 7.3% ? http://38.136.248.93/index_noflash.lasso UK (Jeb B. Terry as over 20 years of financial investment experience. Jeb is currently the founder and President of  Aberdeen Investment Management (AIM), a privately held hedge fund. Prior to AIM, Jeb was Vice President of Private Client Services at Bear Sterns & Co., Co-General Partner at ROSEWOOD (Hunt) Financial Partners & Buttonwood Capital Partners, Vice President and Investment Officer at Bedford Equities, and Vice President at Summit Partners. source: http://www.hillcast.com/company/advisors.asp)

    • Richard McKay (don't know what%) 

    • L.D. Brinkman Corp 5.32% 

      • (Thad R. Finley: His experience includes serving as Vice-President and General Counsel, L.D. Brinkman Corporation 1979-1987; as Vice-President and General Counsel, Hunt International Resources Corporation, 1977-79: and as an Associate and Partner in a Ft. Worth firm, 1971-77. http://www.hammerle.com/tfinley.asp Richard A. McDaniel (don't know what%)  ??? maybe not >>>Government Records Services, Inc. http://www.acs-inc.com/  2800 West Mockingbird Lane Dallas, Texas 75235 Richard A. McDaniel Telephone: (214) 902-5000 or (800) 782-5652 Product: Records management services (microfilm/optical imaging). http://www.county.org/resources/library/county_mag/county/112/assocmems.html / 

    • William D. Oates 5.4%, of InterPro "The Company has an international presence, with employees and offices located in North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East. InterPro’s corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois." source: http://www.interproglobal.com/content.htm?management.htm

• Notes:

  •   Current ES&S CEO Bill Welsh was profiled in the University of Tulsa Magazine, Fall 2001. An interesting excerpt: "Given the fundamental importance and the logistical complexity of elections, Welsh and company leave nothing to chance: they had four business jets and two turboprops on standby; as well as more than 1,000 temporary employees, some drawn from Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. ES&S staff were ready to be anywhere at a moment's notice to help iron out unexpected kinks." Comment: Why does ES&S go to an air force base for temporary personnel?  http://www.utulsa.edu/alumni/magazine/pdf/TUmgFa01.pdf 

  • ES&S voting machines are attached to modems, so they can be operated/accessed from offsite locations. source: http://www.essvote.com/index.php?section=about_faq&rightnav=about 

  •   Vikant Corp., http://www.vikant.com/ a Chicago-area company owned by Alex Kantarovick, formerly of Minsk, Belorussia (also known as White Russia, formerly U.S.S.R.), supplies ES&S the all-important 'control cards' Kantarovich would not disclose where the control cards are made, except they aren't made in America, writes Bollyn. Nor would he discuss his previous employment. Bollyn says he got some not-too-thinly-veiled threats from Kantarovich. source: http://www.spotlight.org/11_07_00/VMachines/vmachines.html 

  • ES&S supplied the touch screens for Miami-Dade and Broward counties where the worst machine failures occurred. But the debacle was nothing new for ES&S. Associated Press (AP) reporter Jessica Fargen wrote in June 2000, "Venezuela's president and the head of the nation's election board accused ES&S of trying to destabilize the country's electoral process. In the United States, four states have reported problems with equipment supplied by the company. Faulty ES&S machines used in Hawaii's 1998 elections forced that state's first-ever recount." http://www.ecotalk.org/AmericanElections.htm

  • More stuff on Hunts: 

    • Commercial Litigation. "Mr. Stevens has over 30 years' as a trial lawyer representing businesses in complex commercial litigation. Significant cases include State of Illinois v. United States Steel Company; Commodity Futures Trading Corporation v. N.B. Hunt, et al.; and Procter & Gamble v. Rockwell Corporation. For example, in Commodity Futures Trading Corporation v. N.B. Hunt, et al, Mr. Stevens successfully defended a Commodity Futures Trading Commission enforcement action against N.B. Hunt and W.H. Hunt alleging violation of soybean position limits under the Commodity Exchange Act as well as a series of related private civil actions, including a class action in which he made what at the time was new law (no implied private right of action for market manipulation under the Commodity Exchange Act). Mr. Stevens also successfully defended the Hunts and Hunt International Resources Corporation in a group of state and federal court cases alleging land fraud and securities law violations with respect to land developments in Colorado and Arizona." source: http://www.mbc.com/attorneys/extBio.asp?ID=S944011867   

    • The Hunt Brothers and the Silver Bubble -  http://www.buyandhold.com/bh/en/education/history/2000/hunt_bros.htm

    • Hunts in Columbia - http://www.ecopetrol.com.co/prin/review/carta/jul99/panor59.htm

  •   Members of Council for National Policy (hard right wing organization) http://www.ifas.org/cnp/name98.html and The Chalcedon Institute:

    • Nelson Bunker Hunt

    • Rev. R. J. Rushdoony of The Chalcedon Institute

    • Howard Ahmanson

To better appreciate the scope of the corporate takeover of the democratic process, here is Unisys's description of itself in the IFES Buyers Guide, "Unisys has successfully implemented national voter registration, identification, and integrated electronic election systems for Brazil (100 million registered voters), South Africa (20 million), Malaysia (10 million), Dominican Republic (4 million), Costa Rica (2 million), and Panama (2 million). Unisys has also successfully implemented Internet-based election results real-time reporting systems for Rome, Italy and for the State of Minnesota. In partnership with Election Systems and Software (ES&S), Unisys has successfully implemented in the United Kingdom multi-channel voting pilot test systems -including touch-screen voting, kiosk voting, postal voting, Internet voting, telephone voting, and digital television voting. Unisys has offices in more than 100 countries."  http://www.ifesbuyersguide.org/detailtest.php?title=Regions&subtitle=Middle_East 

DIEBOLD ELECTION SYSTEMS, INC (military defense contractor) http://www.diebold.com/solutions/election/default.htm 

also check out - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/features/?s=usacoup this website has most of Bev Harris stuff on Diebold.

Article: November 2002: The face of modern ballot tampering by Faun Otter http://www.bartcop.com/diebold.htm 

Felons at Diebold:

Aug 28, 03 - Vote Company Exec Joins Bush Re-Elect Effort "The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." "The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election." by Julie Carr Smyth of Cleveland Plain Dealer Bureau http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/106207171078040.xml 

• approx 33- 35% of U.S. computerized vote count (scanners and touchscreen) - source - Diebold

• Company description: "Diebold develops, implements, and services the world's most advanced self-service and security delivery systems, traditionally for financial institutions, and increasingly for retail and other applications." source: http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/profile2.htm 

• Ownership: Diebold, Inc. http://www.diebold.com

• History: In 2002 Diebold accquired Global Election Systems http://www.diebold.com/news/newsdisp.asp?id=2840  - founded 1991, which itself acquired the AccuVote system the same year. "From the strength and security of the safes and vaults first manufactured by Charles Diebold in 1859, to the technology-based integrated systems, software, and service that the Company provides today.." source: http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/history.htm  Diebold (and Canada-based Subco) acquire Global Election Systems (a Delaware corp, but always listed as having corporate offices in McKinney Texas) from Global, Canada corp. http://www.ssc.gov.sk.ca/files/exemptionorders/dieboldincorporated-nov30-01.pdf  

• http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0EIN/2001_Jan_24/69436303/p1/article.jhtml 

  MCKINNEY, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2001GLOBAL ELECTION SYSTEMS INC. (TSE:GLE.) Global to be the only U.S. publicly traded company solely focused on high-tech voting systems. Based in McKinney, Texas and founded in 1991, Global has steadily grown its market share in the voting systems industry. During the 2000 U.S. presidential election, over 14,000 of Global's AccuVote(TM) optical scan and touch screen voting systems were successfully used in 850 voting jurisdictions across the country. This is a very important day for our company," said Bob Urosevich, Global President. "For the first time U.S. investors can readily buy shares in Global Election Systems, a company that has successfully increased its market share in the elections industry by becoming an expert in local voting regulations that govern elections in the U.S.

Owners & staff: (Heavy Shoup influence. Unclear whether Van Pelt and Ensminger listed below are with BOTH Global and Shoup-Advanced Voting Solutions)

• Bob Urosevich, president, Diebold Election Systems, Inc, founded ES&S with brother Todd.

  • Bob's brother Todd Urosevich is Vice President, Aftermarket Sales of ES&S

  • Bob also founder of Data Mark in 1979, which became American Information System, which bought part of Business Records Crop to become ES&S

  • also with Canada-based Global Election Systems (1991)  http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/2256/history.htm 

• Howard Van Pelt was with Canada-based Global Election Systems http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/2256/history.htm, now president of Shoup Voting Solutions  http://www.fec.gov/pages/vendorslist.htm / Formerly with Computer Election Systems (formed by 4 IBM salesmen. "But Anderson said he finds unacceptable Shoup president Howard Van Pelt's proposal to use a company owned by his wife as a minority contractor to satisfy the county's 20 percent minority participation goal. Anderson wants to see a financial statement of the company, founded in 1895 but purchased by a group of investors a year ago." http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0201/28/m06.html  

• Larry Ensminger was also with Global http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/2256/history.htm. Now with Shoup Voting Solutions http://www.dougbedell.com/voting.html / http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/spotlight/2002/042202.html / also formerly with Computer Election Systems which became?

  • Computer Election Systems (1970's-1996) No major corporation has ventured into the U.S. voting equipment business since IBM, which popularized punch-card voting in the United States, got out of it in the early 1970s. IBM sold the rights to its Votomatic machine to four of its salesmen, who started a company called Computer Election Systems. source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2001-02-13-voting.htm 

• Report: WHO COUNTS THE VOTES? High-tech elections have spawned new vote-fixing conspiracy theories. Is there any truth to the charges? By Gary Ashwill and Chris Kromm . The Diebold corporation is heavily political, and heavily favors the Republican Party. Since 2000, the company itself has made $170,000 in political contributions – all to the Republican National State Elections Committee. Diebold’s corporate directors and officers are similarly clear in their political sympathies. Long-standing and generous friends of the Republican Party such as Louis Bockius III, Donald Gant, and Eric Roorda populate the board of directors. According to campaign finance records at OpenSecrets.org, of the over $240,000 given by Diebold’s directors and chief officers to political campaigns since 1998, all has gone to Republican candidates or party funds. http://www.southernstudies.org/reports/votingmachines-new.htm 

SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS INC. http://www.sequoiavote.com

News:

• As of May 14, 2006: "Today Sequoia Voting Systems is owned by Smartmatic Corporation, a U.S. company.  Smartmatic Corporation is owned by a Dutch holding company, which also owns all of the other companies in which Smartmatic currently conducts business. Smartmatic is privately held.  A controlling interest is held by its founder and CEO, Antonio Mugica, who holds dual Spanish and Venezuelan citizenship." http://www.sequoiavote.com/article.php?id=72

• Nov 24, 04: Election Company Has Long Criminal History by Daniel Hopsicker

• Dec 24, 03: "Sequoia is also linked to the Bush family: De La Rue’s corporate parent, private equity firm Madison Dearborn, is a partner of the Carlyle Group, the investment firm that employs the current president’s father, former president George Herbert Walker Bush." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/vote-d24.shtml 

  • "A subsidiary of De la Rue producing passports for the Mexican government. De La Rue now own the US Sequoia computerised voting systems company, part owned by Carlyle group partner, US investment firm Madison Dearborn who took over Jefferson Smurfit's share of Sequoia." http://www.guerrillanews.com/war_on_drugs/doc3057.html 

• Oct 29, 03: Sequoia Software Found Online http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,61014,00.html

• August 4, 03: "Sequoia Voting Systems, a pioneer in direct recording electronic voting systems and a leading provider of voting equipment and services in the United States, will partner with VoteHere, Inc. of Bellevue, Washington, a leading supplier of secure electronic voting technology, to provide a new level of electronic ballot verification to customers of the AVC Edge touch screen voting system." http://www.votehere.net/news/archive03/080403.htm 

Notes:

• ? % of U.S. vote count:  According to its website, Sequoia technicians "managed thousands of electronic elections for 14 years in 16 states." http://www.sequoiavote.com/aboutSequoia.php 

• Company description: Full service. "Through its nationwide network of offices, Sequoia has equipped and supported elections in thousands of jurisdictions - with populations ranging from a few hundred voters to over three million." http://www.sequoiavote.com/aboutSequoia.php 

• Ownership: 85% De La Rue www.delarue.com  15% Jefferson Smurfit Group http://www.smurfit.ie/  / source: http://moneyextra.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200205290701145655W.html 

  • "De La Rue (London, UK) is the world 's largest commercial security printer and papermaker, involved in the production of over 150 national currencies and a wide range of security documents such as travellers cheques and vouchers. Employing almost 7,000 people across 31 countries, the company is also a leading provider of cash handling equipment and software solutions to banks and retailers worldwide helping them to reduce the cost of handling cash. We are also pioneering new technologies including tailored solutions to protect the world 's brands through to government identity solutions in secure passports, identity cards and driver 's licences. De La Rue has a 20% shareholding in Camelot - the operator of the UK National Lottery." source: http://www.delarue.com/about/  http://moneyextra.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200205290701145655W.html 

  • "The Jefferson Smurfit Group... (Ireland) is one of the largest European-based manufacturers of containerboard, corrugated containers and other paper-based packaging products. In addition to wholly owned operations, the Group has interests in several associated companies, the principal of which is Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation (SSCC). Spanning 4 continents and 30 countries, JSG and its associates employ some 68,000 people and are significant players in Europe, Latin America and North America." source: http://www.smurfit.ie/ (see below for Madison Dearborn Partners buy out information) 

    • Chicago-based Madison Dearborn Partners has received antitrust approval from the Federal Trade Commission for its proposed acquisition of Jefferson Smurfit Group PLC..http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2002/07/15/daily68.html  Madison Dearborn Partners ("one of the largest and most experienced private equity investment firms, lots of communication stuff - http://www.mdcp.com/portfolio.asp ) has ownership stakes in Milnot Holding Corp. http://www.milnot.com/ and Outsourcing Solutions Inc. http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2001/05/07/daily28.html in St. Louis. Jefferson Smurfit Corp., the American division of Ireland-based Jefferson Smurfit Group PLC holding company, was based in St. Louis prior to its 1998 merger with Stone Container Corp. The merged company became Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. based in Chicago. Jefferson Smurfit holds about 29.5 percent of Smurfit-Stone. Jefferson Smurfit (NYSE: JS) is one of the largest manufacturers of container board and corrugated containers and recycles wastepaper in about 600 facilities worldwide.

    • Madison Dearborn Partners: Council Tree Hispanic Investors II, LLC Longmont, Colorado CTHI indirectly owns approximately 18% of Telemundo, one of two Spanish-language broadcasting networks in the U.S. Telemundo reaches approximately 85% of U.S. Hispanic viewers, and owns and operates eight full-power television stations serving the seven largest Hispanic markets in the U.S. and the leading full-power television station and related production facilities in Puerto Rico. http://www.mdcp.com/companies/85.asp (Note: General Electric -part owner of Voter News Service - http://www.ecotalk.org/VoterNewsService.htm  also exercises a lot of control over the news media through ownership of NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, and Telemundo, the nation's second-largest Spanish-language broadcaster.

• History: (Sequoia)

  • "With roots going back to 1896, Sequoia and its predecessor companies(?) have been in the election equipment business longer than any other voting equipment manufacturer in the U.S. Election districts choose Sequoia Voting Systems for the clear advantages of Sequoia's resources, strength and support. As one of the worlds most respected and reliable manufacturers, Sequoia backs its solutions with the comprehensive election experience and unmatched service ethic of its industry-leading professionals." source: http://www.sequoiavote.com/aboutSequoia.php

  • Sequoia bought Business Records Corporation's optical scan vote tabulation business as part of a 1997 Dept. of Justice anti-trust action. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES VOTING MACHINE MANUFACTURERS TO SELL OFF VOTING TABULATION BUSINESS IN ORDER TO MERGE After the Department of Justice expressed concern about the possible anticompetitive effects of a merger between two voting machine manufacturers--American Information Systems and Business Records Corp.--Business Records agreed to sell its optical scan vote tabulation business to a third party. Optical scan vote tabulation equipment is used by state and local governments to run elections. Attorneys General from eight states--Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Arizona, Washington, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania--participated in the investigation.Omaha, Nebraska-based American Information Systems and Dallas-based Business Records are two of only three manufacturers of optical scan vote tabulation equipment in the U.S.Sequoia Pacific Systems of Exeter, California, a division of St. Louis, Missouri-based Smurfit Packaging Corp., will buy Business Records' optical scan vote tabulation business. Sequoia Pacific is a leading maker of direct recording electronic vote tabulation equipment with substantial experience in the elections business.Under the terms of the divestiture, Sequoia Pacific will immediately be able to compete for sales of such products."State and local governments--like any other consumers-- rely on competition to get fair prices," said Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division. "This divestiture preserves competition for voting machines, which is the best way to ensure that taxpayers and voters are protected from high prices and low quality."Optical scan vote tabulation equipment electronically counts and records ballots. This equipment differs from other types of vote tabulation equipment in several respects, most notably in its use of paper ballots, and is viewed by many state and local governments to be the preferred way to record votes accurately. Like most products sold to public entities, optical scan vote tabulation equipment is generally sold through a competitive bidding process. Business Records Corporation had 1996 revenues in all of its product lines of about $100 million.American Information Systems is an unincorporated, wholly-owned subsidiary of the Omaha World-Herald Company. American Information Systems' 1996 sales in all of its product lines were about $14.3 million.Sequoia Pacific Systems is a division of Smurfit Packaging Corporation, which is owned by the Jefferson Smurfit Group plc. Jefferson Smurfit Group is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and had 1996 revenues of about IR£2,594,141,000, with its U.S. operations accounting for IR£185,054,000 of that total.The Department said that additional assistance was provided by the offices of the State Attorneys General of Oregon, Oklahoma, Michigan and Iowa. Working closely with state enforcers on matters of mutual interest has been a major priority of the Antitrust Division. Source: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/1997/November97/489at.htm.html

• Notes: 

  1995 SEC litigation: SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION v. SEQUOIA SYSTEMS, INC., GABRIEL P. FUSCO, KENT R. ALLEN, KEITH D. JOHNSON, AND EDWIN J. HUDSON, JR., Civil Action No. 95-0321 (D.D.C. February 16, 1995). "The Complaint, filed on February 16, 1995, alleges that Hudson, a former Sequoia salesman, together with three former officers of Sequoia, engaged in a fraudulent scheme to inflate the revenue and pre-tax income reported by Sequoia in its periodic and annual reports and financial statements that were publicly disseminated and filed with the Commission. Sequoia is a Nasdaq-listed company headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts, engaged in the design, manufacture and service of fault-tolerant computer systems. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that Sequoia made materially false and misleading statements in all but one of its quarterly reports filed with the Commission during fiscal 1991 and 1992, as well as in its 1991 and 1992 annual reports. Sequoia recognized and recorded sales revenue notwithstanding the fact that the consummation of the sales transactions and Sequoia's receipt of payment for its products were contingent upon future events, or in circumstances where there was no binding sales contract."  http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr14726.txt 

  The Big Louisiana Election Scandal of 1999-?: Sequoia has been plagued by scandal. And it has some of the earmarks of an outrun run by organized crime. In 1996 right wing Republican Woody Jenkins lost to (increasingly conservative) Democrat Mary Landrieu for U.S. Senate seat. Jenkin's investigation led to federal charges of bribery of election officials. Sequoia Pacific’s Regional Manager, Phil Foster, and their regional sales executive, Pasquale (Rocco) Ricci (also owner of New Jersey-based Independent Voting Machine Services), were indicted for paying out about $8 million in bribes to Louisiana Commissioner of Elections Jerry Fowler. Glenn Boord and Ralph Escudero, also involved, owned Uni-lect, which was associated with Sequoia Pacific. They pled guilty to conspiracy to compound a felony. According to Asst. Dist. Atty. Sandra Reber, "Foster’s hands-on involvement was Foster's recruitment of his own brother-in-law, Donald Philpot of Birmingham, Alabama, (owner of Election Services Inc.) to help launder the kickbacks." J. Herbert Webb, president of Electec, Inc. was also involved. Fowler may have paid as much as $8 million more than required to buy machines, parts and maintenance services from Pasquale Ricci and David Philpot. In all, 22 people were indicted on charges related to a department whose primary responsibility is warehousing and maintaining the state's voting machines. Nine have pleaded guilty. Ricci, amazingly, got a one year home detention. Fowler got over 50 months in prison. Sources:http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/27/fowlertrial.ap/ / http://www.madcowprod.com/intro.htm /  http://www.securepoll.com/Archives/Archive47.htm / http://www.whoseflorida.com/voting_machines.htm   http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2001/11/19/story4.html / 

  • ?Voting Machine Service Center, Inc.? address, 2 quotes to town supervisors, same owners? http://www.commercial.com/tchester/tocminutes/tb071399.html 

  • Electec, Inc. electecinc@home.com 41 East Monroe Street, P.O. Box 79, Mount Holly, NJ 8060 Ph: [1] 609-265-8181
    Sales Contact: J. Herbert Webb, President (electecinc@home.com) [1] 800-833-9912
    Description: Sales and service of AVM and Shoup voting machines and Global Election Systems AccuVote electronic voting systems. Equipment sales and rental. Printing of digitized poll books using our easy-view binder system. Complete inventory of parts for both Shoup and AVM mechanical machines. 

    • According to Daniel Hopsicker, Harold and Herb Webb are twin brothers operating election service industry companies in New Jersey.  These companies,  Garden State Elections (Mt.Holly, NJ) and Elec-tec (Birmingham, AL - http://www.birminghamchamber.com/news/2001/feb/newspg2_0101.html), were used to conceal transactions involving election services industry giant Sequoia Pacific, according to court documents, which fingered that company last week for orchestrating a 10-year long bribery scheme involving the Commissioner of Elections for Louisiana. http://www.madcowprod.com/welcomechad.htm / 

  • Did Louis Wolfson own Sequoia as alledged by Hopsicker? "Only a generation ago, (1969) Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas was compelled to resign after it was revealed that he had given private legal advice to financier Louis Wolfson and received payments from the Wolfson family foundation while on the high court. Fortas was a corrupt Democratic Party crony of President Lyndon Johnson, but he never took part in any case directly affecting Wolfson's interests, let alone his own family's, as Thomas and Scalia have done in Bush v. Gore." http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/dec2000/sup-d22.shtml

  • Hopsicker says that Ricci got his start from Shoup. Where's the proof?

  • Hopsicker says that Sequoia also makes slot machines. True?

DANAHER'S GUARDIAN http://www.controls-online.com/gvs / http://www.danaher.com/business/niche_division.asp?key=36 

• % of U.S. vote count: ?

• Company description:  "As a full service election division of Danaher Corporation, we can be counted on to deliver total solutions and world class support -- today and tomorrow." source: http://www.controls-online.com/gvs/  

• NOTE: It looks they use Shoup equipment www.AdvancedVoting.com)/ http://www.shoupvote.com/ .  Danaher markets ELECTronic 1242 Voting System, formerly known as 'Shouptronic' Voting Machine" http://www.nased.org/.  Ransom Shoup II, was convicted in 1979 of conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to an FBI inquiry into a lever machine-counted election in Philadelphia. Philadelphia bought voting machines from Danaher for the 2002 elections.

• Ownership: Danaher Corporation http://www.danaher.com/main.asp 

  • big defense contractor-  http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/db.aspx?act=cinfo&coid=024744476

  •  Steven M. Rales, Chairman of the Board of Danaher Corp. since 1984 http://www.danaher.com/html/corpprofile/dhr_directors.asp, 

  • Mitchell P. Rales, Chairman of Executive Committee

  • USA Today - 400 richest Americans (each worth $1.3 billion) http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti562a.htm 

  • Latest SEC filing.  http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/ 

  • Jack Andersen wrote, "In the summer of 1988, a pair of corporate raiders out of Washington, D.C., brothers Steven M. and Mitchell P. Rales, targeted Interco for takeover, offering to buy the company for $64 a share, or $2.4 billion. To fend off the Raleses, Interco's management turned to Wasserstein Perella, which came up with a plan valued at $76 a share. Interco obviously did not have that kind of cash lying around. So the plan called for the company to borrow $2.9 billion." http://www.politicalindex.com/wrong1.htm 

  • Mitchell P. Rales & Steven M. Rales, appear to own PAR Broadcasting Company, Inc., http://198.17.75.65/fril/1996/19960312/96-5873.txt / http://www.parbroadcastgroup.com/index.html PAR switched to Citicaster  http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/Public_Notices/Brdcst_Actions/ac970304.txt Although Citicasters was acquired by Jacor, which then was bought by Clear Channel, http://www.clearchannel.com/wld_exe.php, the Citicasters name remains on the license.) Clear Channel is owned by the Mays brothers (3) http://www.insideradio.com/survivor/bios.shtml 

  • Steven and Mitchell sit on board of Imo Industries, "..a multinational manufacturer of a broad range of industrial products operates through five segments - power transmission, pumps, instrumentation, morse controls and roltra-morse. The power transmission segment designs and manufactures electronic adjustable-speed motor drives, gears and speed reducers. The pumps segment makes a broad range of rotary pumps, including a proprietary line of two and three-screw pumps. The morse controls segment manufactures push-pull cable and remote control systems." ?? 609 8967600 /  http://www.business.com/directory/automotive/parts_and_equipment/imo_industries_inc/profile IMO, INDUSTRIES INC., Lawrenceville, New Jersey and England, is a leader in selected markets for analytical and optical instruments, electronic and mechanical controls, engineered power products and related support services. Imo is an international company with approximately $1 billion in revenues. http://www.mertz.com/tombstones/33.shtml I.M.O. Industries, Inc., as successor to and formerly known as Delaval  Turbine, Transamerica Delaval and  IMO Delaval http://www.mesotheli.com/david.htm (not quite sure this is all the same company)

  • Equity Group Holdings is a private equity firm led by Steven M. Rales and Mitchell P. Rales, a Curl Corporation Board member. http://www.curl.com/html/about/investors.jsp 

  • Danaher Controls http://www.dancon.com/index.sht "owned by the Danaher Corporation, a Fortune-500 company (NYSE - DHR), Danaher Controls was formed through the merger of the Veeder-Root Company -- the best known name in counting, the Dynapar Corporation -- the motion control specialists, and Eagle Signal Controls -- the premier name in timing." 

  • HARBOR FINANCE PARTNERS v DANAHER CORP http://www.legalcasedocs.com/120/240/782.html 

ADVANCED VOTING SOLUTIONS INC / SHOUP VOTING SOLUTIONS www.AdvancedVoting.com)/ http://www.shoupvote.com/

• % of U.S. vote count: ?

• Company description: Full Service. (www.AdvancedVoting.com)

• Ownership:  Shoup Voting Solutions, Inc. (same business address and contact info) http://www.shoupvote.com/

• History: Company (Shoup) "dates back to before the turn of the last century (1895) when it's founders developed the first mechanical lever machine."

  One of the most widely used direct recording machines is called the "Shouptronic" named for its company, R.F. Shoup. The president of that company, Ransom Shoup II, was convicted in 1979 of conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to an FBI inquiry into a lever machine-counted election in Philadelphia. According to Hopsicker, Shoup got a three year suspended sentence. http://dispatches.phoblacht.net/archive/dispatch220.htm

  Officers of Philadelphia-based Shoup Voting Machine Co. were indicted for allegedly bribing politicians in Tampa, Fla. in 1971, according to published reports. http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2001/11/19/story4.html  

• Notes:

  • Company seems to be still operating under the name of Shoup Voting Solutions. http://www.securepoll.com/Archives/Archive80.htm 

  • Strong Diebold/Global Election Systems connection, almost entire management team (see below) came from Global Election Systems - now Diebold. source: info@advancedvoting.com:

    • Howard T. Van Pelt: The company was recently reborn and reconstructed under new ownership and new leadership to re-address the marketplace. Howard T. Van Pelt, who was invloved in the management of two of the most successful election equipment companies in the industry's history (Computer Elections Systems [CES] and Global Election Systems [Global], a company he co-founded) became president and chief executive officer in June 2001. He quickly began assembling a staff of seasoned election professionals whose experience dates back to 1970." http://clients.enfocom.com/avs/company.html 

    • Larry Ensminger: started his career at Computer Election Systems in mid-1970's and then join Global Election Systems upon its creation in 1991 where he held progressive management positions during his 10-year term. He joined Advanced Voting Solutions in late 2001 to assist in the restructuring and redeployment of the company. He has held vice president positions in sales, operations and corporate development.

    • Ingrid Giordano: managed the field service operations and created the service bureau at the Global Election Systemns.

    • Tyler Lincks: has experience as a regional project manager at Global an then later established and managed the in-house training center.

    • Kimblerlee Shoup: has carried on the longstanding Shoup family name in the elections business. She has held a number of responsible positions and has spearheaded sales and service organizations to support the mechanical lever machine and Shouptronic 1242 customer base. 

Other election systems companies: 

Accenture & Election.com (military defense contractor) (June 2003 - www.Election.com purchased by http://www.accenture.com)

• MUST READ! - Jul 16, 03: Offshore Company Captures Online Military Vote

• Canada-based Polaris Institute's scathing report  http://www.polarisinstitute.org/corp_profiles/public_service_gats/corp_profile_ps_accenture.html 

• Jack Kemp, former Republican vice presidential candidate, is on Election.com's Board of Directors.

• May 30, 03 Saudis Dump U.S. Voter Firm (election.com) by Charles R. Smith, http://newsmax.com (firm is also involved in voter registration)

• Feb 27, 03 Election.com Sold To Group Tied To Saudi Nationals - (Lynn's copy) by Mark Harrington of Newsday.com - http://www.election.com/us/pressroom/pr2001/0130.htm  

• Jan 25, 03 Election.com hacked during Canadian pary leadership election by CBC news online staff

As mentioned in the following article, Accenture also has a business relationship with Hart Intercivic of Austin, Texas http://www.hartintercivic.com  - http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/spotlight/2002/042202.html 

Unisys - http://www.unisys.com/index.htm  (military defense contractor)  http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/db.aspx?act=cinfo&coid=005358932

Partners with ES&S, Dell, and Microsoft - see below

• "In 1996, Unisys installed 77,000 voting machines in Brazil. It also has built a voting system in Costa Rica and an online voting system in Rome. In the United States, Unisys built an online tabulation and reporting system for Minnesota that was used for a presidential preference poll March 7, 2000. “It used the state’s intranet, so it was very secure,” Curry said."
   http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/15_22/state/16033-7.html

• To better appreciate the scope of the corporate takeover of the democratic process, here is Unisys's description of itself in the IFES Buyers Guide, "Unisys has successfully implemented national voter registration, identification, and integrated electronic election systems for Brazil (100 million registered voters), South Africa (20 million), Malaysia (10 million), Dominican Republic (4 million), Costa Rica (2 million), and Panama (2 million). Unisys has also successfully implemented Internet-based election results real-time reporting systems for Rome, Italy and for the State of Minnesota. In partnership with Election Systems and Software (ES&S), Unisys has successfully implemented in the United Kingdom multi-channel voting pilot test systems -including touch-screen voting, kiosk voting, postal voting, Internet voting, telephone voting, and digital television voting. Unisys has offices in more than 100 countries."  http://www.ifesbuyersguide.org/detailtest.php?title=Regions&subtitle=Middle_East   

• Article: Unisys, Dell, MS team on vote technology By Sandeep Junnarkar
  Special to ZDNet January 10, 2001, 4:00 PM PT http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-527091.html?legacy=zdnn

Northrop Grumman/Diversified Dynamics' iPaper  (military defense contractor) http://www.northropgrumman.com/  

• Northrop Grumman bought TRW (also involved in the voting machine business) in 2002 - http://www.webprowire.com/summaries/333626.html 

• http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/db.aspx?act=cinfo&coid=016435559

• "Northrop Grumman Corporation is a $25 billion global defense enterprise, with worldwide headquarters in Los Angeles, Calif. Northrop Grumman provides technologically advanced, innovative products, services and solutions in defense electronics, systems integration, information technology, advanced aircraft, shipbuilding, and space technology. With approximately 120,000 employees and operations in all 50 states and 25 countries, Northrop Grumman serves U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers."  http://www.northropgrumman.com/news/new_faq_main.html 

• The Carlyle Group (which employees the former President George H.W. Bush, and former CIA director) bought into Northrop Grumman's Commercial Aerostructures business (now called Integrated Systems Sector), which is the largest supplier of aircraft structures to the Boeing company, which is the nation's 2nd largest contractor. http://www.northgrum.com/news/news_releases/0700-111_Carlyle_close.html

• Oct. 30, 2002 NORTHROP GRUMMAN ENTERS NEW MARKET WITH INNOVATIVE ELECTION SYSTEMS AND SERVICES HERNDON, Va. -- -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) announced today that the company has entered the worldwide electronic election services market by signing an agreement with iPaper, LLC, Richmond, Va., to exclusively license and manufacture iPaper's electronic voting systems. Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) and Electronic Systems sectors will develop and market high-tech election systems, addressing a critical need for fully integrated, dependable and affordable voting systems throughout voting precincts in the United States. Northrop Grumman selected the iPaper solution following a comprehensive evaluation of available technologies and systems. http://www.it.northropgrumman.com/news/news_releases/ng021030.html 

• April 22, 02 Voting Machine Firms Enlist Lobbyists by John McCosh, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer http://www.ajc.com/ "Seven contestants. Fifty-four million dollars. And the clock is running. Within two weeks, we'll know the winner of the $54 million contract to set Georgia voters up with 18,000 touchscreen voting machines this November. Will it be the team that hires the best political insiders? Then the race would be a close one between the tandems Diebold Election Systems/Global Elections, which hired former Secretary of State Lewis Massey as a lobbyist, and Northrop Grumman/Diversified Dynamics, which retains the lobbying firm of Department of Transportation board member Boyd Pettit. Or maybe it will go to the firm that hired the lobbyist that contributed the most to the 2002 election campaigns of the state's top constitutional officers. Accenture/Hart Intercivic is enlisting the help of lobbyists Thomas Boller and Rusty Sewell, who contributed a combined $16,000 to Gov. Roy Barnes, $6,000 to Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and $2,000 to Secretary of State Cathy Cox. That easily outpaces the re-election donations of William Wingate, the lobbyist for Election Systems & Software, who contributed $7,000 to Barnes, $1,000 to Taylor and $500 to Cox."

• "Diversified Dynamics has brought the election process to the technological level of the new millennium by designing the world’s most advanced electronic vote recording and election management system. We were supported in this effort by the engineering and software capabilities of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a world leader in systems development and integration. This totally electronic and fully Y2K compliant direct recording voting system enables government officials and meeting planners to administer election processes more efficiently and economically than ever before. Utilizing PCMCIA and smart card technology, the System 5 DVRS has established a new benchmark in the election management industry." http://www.divdyn.com/sys5.htm Comment: 

  • Aug 12, 03: Black Box: SAIC testing of Diebold to remain a secret
    http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59976,00.html

• http://www.capitol.northgrum.com/press_releases/ngpress103002.html Diversified Dynamics, Inc. was co-founded in 1997 by former Commonwealth of Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder (Democrat) and Midlothian, Va., businessman, Thomas G. Davis, to develop electronic voting technology. Wilder is the company's chairman of the board of directors. Davis, the company's vice chairman, is also managing member of iPaper, LLC, a separate company founded to develop patented 'audio ballot voting technology' and other patented 'paper-based' computerized data collection technologies for use in next-generation absentee voting systems and to provide immediate improvements in educational testing processes. Their patent pending SYSTEM 5 DVRS (Direct Vote Recording System) and 5 Plus! EMS(c) (Election Management Software) is fully NASED (National Association of State Election Directors) certified.

•  

TRW (military defense contractor) Voting business? sketchy info

• "A year ago the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) named the US technology company, Cogent Inc, as its preferred bidder to develop Jamaica's proposed computerised voting system in which an elector's fingerprint would be matched from the existing database before the automatic delivery of ballots. Cogent, another American firm TRW Inc., and the French firm, Sagem, in March last year competed to provide the system, based on configurations for which the EAC holds a US patent, and displayed their fingerprinting matching capabilities at demonstrations in Kingston." http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/

• News article: Northrop Grumman bought TRW in 2002 after the Carlyle Group suddenly backed out. http://www.webprowire.com/summaries/333626.html / http://www.ventureeconomics.com/buy/protected/1031550851830.html 

More on TRW, Vinnell, and the Carlyle Group  (all three are military defense contractors) http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/db.aspx?act=cinfo&coid=004179453

• "The Vinnell Corporation (a TRW company, owned until 1997 by Carlyle Group) is one of the three pre-eminent private mercenary corporations in the world.  It is also the dominant entity for the training of security forces throughout the Middle East. Vinnell is a leader in training foreign military forces to U.S. standards. For more than 20 years Vinnell has been the contractor for training and modernization of the Saudi Arabian National Guard. In addition, provide a range of training to other fighting forces in the Middle East. Vinnell operates and maintains facilities and equipment all over the world for the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and U.S." http://www.dyncorp-sucks.com/trw.htm (page is blank, find the following under cache in google) 

• For five years until 1997 it (Vinnell) was owned by the Carlyle group, a defence and investment house close to the Bush family. Vinnell recently came under the financial control of giant US defence contractor Northrop." http://www.rense.com/general37/asqaedasaidhated.htm "

• Firm (Vinnell) Was 'Cover for CIA' by Ian Cobain Published on Wednesday, May 14, 2003 by the Times/UK http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0514-06.htm

• Dr. Robert Gates "Dr. Robert Gates has 27 years experience as an intelligence professional for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), including serving as Director of Central Intelligence from November 1991 until January 1993. Currently, Dr. Gates is the Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, a position he has held since 1999."  (Editor's note: Dr. Gates is on the Board of VoteHere and TRW. July 25, 03 - it was just reported on MSNBC by Andrea Mitchell that Robert Gates was with the CIA and NSA (National Security Agency)

Cogent  http://www.cogentsystems.com/cogent/cogenthome.html 

• Jamaica Observer "A year ago the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) named the US technology company, Cogent Inc, as its preferred bidder to develop Jamaica's proposed computerised voting system in which an elector's fingerprint would be matched from the existing database before the automatic delivery of ballots. Cogent, another American firm TRW Inc., and the French firm, Sagem, in March last year competed to provide the system, based on configurations for which the EAC holds a US patent, and displayed their fingerprinting matching capabilities at demonstrations in Kingston." http://www.jama