It’s that time of the election cycle again. Happens every four years. (Every two, actually.) On today’s BradCast: That moment when partisans on the Right declare Democrats are stealing the election with voting machines owned by George Soros and Democrats worry that Republicans are doing the same via private companies actually owned by big GOP supporters. [Audio link posted below.]
Both sides see votes flipping on touch-screen systems to their opponents. Both sides declare it only happens to their chosen party. Both sides have reason to worry about private ownership of our electoral systems. Both sides tend to be very selective about their concerns. And both sides do nothing about it until it’s time to start freaking out again just before the next election.
The old, previously debunked charge that the progressive billionaire Soros is somehow controlling voting machines across the U.S. re-appeared yet again in the Rightwingosphere over the weekend, only slightly modified from its 2012 version. This time it has resulted in a petition to WhiteHouse.gov — so far, signed by more than 70,000 since it was posted late last week — demanding “congress meet in emergency session about removing George Soros owned voting machines from 16 states.”
But, of course, as we noted back in 2012, when Democrats were concerned about the actual ownership of voting machine company Hart Intercivic by associates of Mitt Romney, Soros does not own any companies with voting machines in the U.S. He doesn’t own any companies with voting machines used elsewhere either, to my knowledge. But the original seed for the persistently false rumor seems to have been planted, in no small part, by The BRAD BLOG’s exclusive coverage way back in 2008 of a Venezuelan voting machine company named Smartmatic — once believed linked to Hugo Chavez — and their secret ownership of the Intellectual Property (IP) used in voting machines made by Sequoia Voting Systems. Many of those machines are still used in about 15 states across the country.
Sequoia has since been purchased by a Canadian firm named Dominion Voting, which, like Sequoia before it, lied about Smartmatic’s ownership of IP used in Sequoia’s machines. But, as I explain on today’s program, it could hardly be further removed from Soros who, as it turns out, has absolutely no stake in Smartmatic or any of the other vote counting companies deployed in the U.S..
But, like Democrats, Republicans have every right and reason to be concerned about the obscene private corporate ownership of our nation’s public voting and tabulation machinery. (Please petition Whitehouse.gov about that!) As I noted to a reporter seeking comment about the concerns about Romney’s ties to Hart Intercivic around this same exact time before the 2012 Presidential Election…
And, like similar clockwork, once again this year we are now hearing the shouts about touch-screen voting machines flipping Democratic to Republican and Republican to Democratic — and the claims from partisans on both sides that “this only ever happens to Republicans/Democrats!” — as early voting gets underway in a number of states. Is there legitimate reason to worry about such votes flipping? The answer is both yes and no, with reason for all of us to be ashamed, as I explain on the show today.
Also, not unrelated on today’s program: Volkswagen’s record billion dollar settlement for programming their cars’ software to cheat on emissions tests; GOP Senator in close election warms up to climate change; Desi Doyen joins us for the Green News Report as pipeline protests rage, China closes coal-fired power plants, Sen. Marco Rubio looks the other way as Florida faces rising seas, and the corporate media ignore all of it during each of this year’s Presidential debates…
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[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_VotingMythsFactsSorosToDiebold_102516.mp3]
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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It’s always amused me that the right says your average democrat on the street worships George Soros.
Personally, I’ve never looked into him and could care less. He’s just another token billionaire as far as I’m concerned. I could change my mind if he donated to honest left wing media, but he doesn’t.
I totally agree with the dangers of the privatization of the election equipment and sources and I like the way it’s put there. But I highly disagree it’s not connected to Soros. Just reading back to when it was first formed in Venezuela and the twists and turns in ownership, investors, buyouts, sales; the fact that there’s now an email where Soros is in Venezuela for their election and jaunting on down here for ours now. It’s like he’s a regime maker and changer with free delivery service. Surely we’ve learned to follow the money and the orgs, like Open Society being SmartMatics largest donor. I’m trying to unravel the AIS aka ES&S aka Dominion aka iVotronics cuz that’s what we use in our county and it uses the GEMS method of fraud. It started with republican Hagen and the McCarthy Group and goes on and on and on. It’s like the players keep playing hot potato with the voting companies to muddy the water. And sadly I’ve seen enough from the leaks to make me firmly believe there is no republican versus democrat. Seems like they’re one and the same and just another diversion to divide us and make us think we had a choice, all put on by the master himself. Just my thoughts on this crazy train. lol Oh, and the “new” owner of ES&S partners with this organization? https://www.clintonfoundation.org/clinton-global-initiative/commitments/delian-project-democracy-through-technology Really? What a sham. Anyway, sorry to interrupt your blog! lol It came up in a search for Dominion. I’ll have to read more sometime. Cheers
Tonda said @ 2:
Great!
But I highly disagree it’s not connected to Soros. Just reading back to when it was first formed in Venezuela and the twists and turns in ownership, investors, buyouts, sales; the fact that there’s now an email where Soros is in Venezuela for their election and jaunting on down here for ours now. It’s like he’s a regime maker and changer with free delivery service.
Well, he is American. So I don’t know that he’s “jaunting down here for ours”. As to his being in Venezuala for their election, I’m not familiar with that email, and you didn’t link it, so we’ll have to take your word for it. Nonetheless, he has no stake in Smartmatic, which, in turns, runs no elections in the U.S. So maybe you just want to believe he is magically controlling US elections? Or maybe you are a bit confused about some facts…
Um. Where do you get that idea? (Links are helpful, because ethe rest of your information is a whole bunch of conflated inaccuracies…
ES&S (owned and run by GOP supporters) is a separate company from Dominion (a Canadian firm), which does not manufacturer the iVotronic. ES&S manufactures it. GEMS is the tabulator software created originally by Global Election Systems before it was purchased by Diebold (which was ultimately purchased by Dominion.) So, GEMS is not used with ES&S iVotronics, and Dominion has nothing to do with them, other than as a competitor, and the only link between Dominion and Smartmatic (in which Soros has no ownership or control) is via a company named Sequoia, which used to be owned by Smartmatic, but now it is own by Dominion. And, again, Smartmatic does not run any elections in the US.
Other than that, you’re right on it! 🙂
Who’s “the master”? Soros?
It is a crazy train. But I think you’ve made it a lot crazier. And if you got the idea from WikiLeaks that Republicans and Democrats are “one and the same”, then I think you read them about as closely as you read the history of ownership of voting machine companies in the U.S. The old “both parties are the same” is the laziest, knee-jerk hackery among the electorate. And it’s used either by very lazy people or people trying to hoax others into not participating in their own representative democracy.
No clue which of those two lazy people you might be. But thanks for stopping by.