Smartomatic is run by Lord Mark Malloch Brown (archived link as page has since been removed). Their “about” page states Brown chairs Open Society Foundation and was a “former number two at the UN”.
- In late 2014, Mr Brown’s investment group SGO partnered with (funded) Smartomatic, a “troubled Venezuelan voting company”, soon after a Swedish developer of digital pens, (Anoto) entered into an exclusive agreement with Smartomatic, allowing only them to use their digital pens. These digital pens were important, because the pens retained the paper ballot making it hard to rig the system. Truly, a giant step in stopping massive voter fraud. Oddly, this anti-fraud election technology appears to have been shut down after Mr. Brown held the “purse strings”.
- In 2015 C.J. Wilson wrote “It’s also baffling that Anoto would sign an exclusive agreement with Smartmatic knowing that Smartmatic will NEVER be allowed to conduct elections (or election-related activities) in the US. That’s a multi-billion dollar market they are willing to simply write off for no reason. Now it is possible that Smartmatic, through some front group, will try to sneak back into the US marketplace, but that would end really badly for them—really badly. But US election officials and government agencies should be on the lookout for this. It’s been tried before.”
It seems Smartomatic found their way into the US market, or at least their software did, through the Canadian owned company Dominion. More than likely though the investment was to halt the anti-fraud “Digital Pen”.
NationWatch 