Touch-screen voting CEO barred entry to US

CEO of Vote-Counting Company Refused Entry into the U.S.

On October 14, 2005, Antonio Mujica, CEO of Smartmatic, was refused entry into the United States. His Visa was revoked by the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela. See (http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200510160629)

Ten months ago, Smartmatic, a Venezuelan-owned company, purchased Sequoia Voting Systems, Inc. for $16 million (U.S.). Sequoia Voting Systems is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic voting systems purchased in the United States. Public access to the company's vote-counting software is prohibited by trade secret laws.

VotersUnite.Org's Information Manager, John Gideon said, The irony of this situation shows how irrational the administration of elections in the U.S. has become. While U.S. law allows this Venezuelan man to control the secret counting of Americans votes, the U.S. State Department doesn't consider him fit to enter the country, even temporarily.

The organization's Executive Director, Ellen Theisen, added, It's also ironic that when we take vote-counting to Iraq, we take it in the form of paper ballots deposited into clear plastic ballot boxes, but in our own country, vote-counting is in the form of electronic ballots and secret software controlled by a man our government has declared ineligible to set foot in the country.

US Embassy in Venezuela revokes visa of Smartmatic owner
http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200510160629
From | Descifrado
16.10.05 | Antonio Mujica, CEO of Smartmatic, got very upset Friday morning whilst trying to renew his US tourist visa. The entrepreneur waited a good while before being called by a US Embassy's consular official, who informed him that his visa had not been approved. Mujica, very crossed, requested, in English, explanations as to the reasons for it. He argued that he was legal, that he had an important company in the USA and that he had to travel with urgency to that country.
The American Consul's rejection was categoric as a very disturbed Mujica left the embassy without uttering any words in Spanish or English.

it does. Brother Pat must have gotten mad at the guy!

Looks like the rest of the world is learning the tricks of the trade. This is good -- maybe the Right-wingers will start to get worried now about who owns the proprietary codes in voting machines.

I like paper, myself. I can wait a few hours for the ballots to be counted. So long as they can be re-counted.