Firedoglake’s Jane Hamsher dropped me a note over the weekend to inquire if I’d heard anything about a company called Universal Identification Solutions (UIS) who was to be announcing the results of El Salvador’s presidential elections over the weekend. A bunch of election observers down there had been “suddenly” informed that the company would be responsible for election night reporting, yet nobody had heard of them, and their website was “really sketchy and vague” at best, as Jane noted.
“Sketchy and vague” is right…
Based on their creepy James Bond villain-styled website, the company, which I’d never heard of, appears to use some kind of e-voting technology from a best guess — though that’s unclear — with an emphasis on “identification”. My favorite line from their creepy front-page introductory video (which takes forever to load for some reason): “Let us know what results you are waiting for, and we’ll do the work together”.
Seriously, go take a look at that scary 30-second-or-so promotional video. Make sure your sound is turned up as it’s loading.
Sunday’s election was of particular interest in this country, as a bunch of Republican U.S. Congress members had made news in El Salvador’s government-controlled papers, by sending a letter to the Obama Administration meant to back the Rightwing incumbents who have held power there for two decades. Statements, described by Huffington Post’s Robert Naiman as “dirty tricks in Washington and El Salvador”, made on the floor of the U.S. House by Congressmen Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Dan Burton (R-IN) at the end of the week, charged that if the opposition FMLN party wins the election, the U.S. “would be required to reevaluate our policy toward El Salvador, including cash remittance and immigration policies to compensate for the fact there will no longer be a reliable counterpart in the Salvadoran government.” The comments, Naiman notes, were allegedly timed to hit weekend papers after the campaign period had ended, so the FMLN party would be unable to respond.
The creepy UIS website goes on to instruct, on one of their unlinkable pages, that they “provide technology-based services and products for identification and elections, the very basis of a democratic government.”
Of course, I’m unaware of “identification” being a cornerstone of any actual democratic principles, though Republicans from Arizona and Indiana, two of the most regressive states in the union when it comes to disenfranchisment at the polling place through the use of restrictive ID policies, may feel differently about that.
One other clue from the mysterious UIS website is their claim to “recent successes” in U.S. Elections through the “Use of EID as Look-Up Device and complete Electronic Poll Book.”
Neither I, nor VotersUnite.org’s John Gideon had ever heard of this company, or their product in use in an election here. So if anyone reading this happens to have heard of them or their product being used somewhere here, we’d welcome the tip.
In any case, the “good” news is that the announced results were, in fact, in line with the pre-election and exit polling, and the ruling party has been voted out — according to those announced results — in favor of FMLN. So, for now anyway, another “faith-based” e-voting nightmare and/or accompanying revolt has been avoided, Fox “News” has been able to clumsily slime the new ruling party as expected, and all is “well” in the world, for another e-day…
Related link:
http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/15/el-salvador-elections-who-is-universal-identification-solutions/
Today’s guest on the daily show, 4 star general Richard Myers!!!! Money quote from the interview imo “While some might disagree politically NO ONE can argue that you served your country for the last 4 years.” Really? Nobody can argue that? What about quashing torture investigations? What about the reports of top military brass skimming billions off the top from Iraqi reconstruction? Two RELEVANT questions I would have loved to see Stewart ask, that for some reason weren’t. I did hear the two of them agree on a few things tho, namely that the people in the US military are the best in the world (sorry about the genocide mmkay), the US military is wonderful because it’s non-partisan (which is why fascists Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are on armed forces radio and liberal commentators are not), and that members of the military are smarter, braver, and more compassionate. I guess it’s just rogue elements beating arab taxi drivers to death. Oh, another message from watching it now…the invasion of Iraq was just a “mistake”. Not a willful deception of the American people that deserves serious legal consequences up to and including capital punishment, but just a mistake.
Is it really better to have the fascists on these programs when (apparently) it’s agreed upon beforehand that no damaging questions will be asked?
Wow! Creepy is the right word to describe that website. It seems like their marketing plan targets military dictators who wear reflective sunglasses. That is really scary and I’m anxious to hear if any of the Bradblog readers have any information about this company.
I hope they get sued by Universal!
Official Record Company[s]
That would be the ultimate irony.
El Salvador saved by an angry music industry disassociating with a really negative image snitching at their name. I can hear the CEO’s at Universal, ”
http://www.”UniversalIDent.com/
It’s good to get tossed sometimes.
I’m a former engineer, a designer of things in this general category (embedded systems). I took a look at their web site. It’s absolutely a sham – the “specification” for their hardware has been cobbled together to look good, but it’s literally gibberish, at best its bits of catalog descriptions of various parts, just thrown together. The mechanical drawing provided does not agree with the photograph.
Of course, the hardware page is full of part numbers, designed to look technical (under the heading “Hardware Technique Specification” – I think they meant “Technical”). The RAM spec (256 MB) disagrees with the functional description (1024 MB), etc etc. Full of holes.
Someone has been very very busy, but not making voting systems.
Very interesting observations, Steve #7.
Here are my initial questions after a quick look at the absurd website:
Why is the site in English?
Why are the addresses in NY and DC, but the text reads like it was translated by someone who was not a native English speaker?
Why is the “software” button on the products page a blurry photo?
Why do all the pages have the same url?
They say they were founded in 2007 but their website is copyright 2008.
What the hell are “Civil Registration Applications,” listed among their “advanced technology tools?”
LoL, the EVM comes with an optional cash drawer hook-up…gonna need that if you have to pay to vote.
hmm, The IFES doesn’t say they were into it.
Apparently ya have to talk to Geoff Thale to finger this out
universalident.com
WHOIS: Blarik Marketing Ltd., Calgary, CA
Universalident.com has a traffic rank of: No Data
# Speed: Not available
# Other sites that link to this site: No Data
Universalident lists addresses in NY and DC:
875 Third Avenue, 10th Floor New York, NY
= Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP
875 Third Avenue 10th Floor
International Square Center
1875 “I†Street, N.W., Suite 500, Washington DC,
= Pierce Atwood’s Washington, D.C. office International and energy matters.
1875 I Street NW, 5th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20006
Ask this guy, maybe?
Peter H. Jacobs, of Counsel, Pierce Atwood
Direct Dial: 207·791·1353
pjacobs@pierceatwood.com
Professional Activities
Peter served as Chair of a Blue Ribbon Commission to Review Maine’s Election Practices (1993), established in the wake of a scandal over attempted ballot box stuffing in 1992 Maine legislative races. During 1987 and 1988, while on leaves of absence from Pierce Atwood, he served in key positions in the Dukakis and Dukakis-Bentsen national presidential campaigns, working both on issues and politics in the campaigns’ Boston headquarters.
George Seebach
416 Woodbriar Place S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2W 6A5
Canada
gseebach@telusplanet.net
“Seebach is Advanced Voting Solutions Rep for Galaxy Commutech who manufactures AVS,s DRE electronic voting machine hardware in Hong Kong”
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/73/44891.html
GALAXY COMMUTECH LTD (in HONG KONG)
Room 907
5-21 Pak Tin Par St
Tsuen Wan NT Hong Kong
Tel:
Fax: 852-2414-2938
Contact: Thomas Lee
(Galaxy manufacture all of Advanced Voting Solutions DRE electronic voting machines)
GEORGE SEEBACH
Calgary Alberta
Tel: 403-238-2172
ENFOCOM INTERNATIONAL CORP, CALGARY
2915 19th St NW, Calgary Alberta
Herb Fensury (CEO)
Email: Herbert.fensury@enfocom.com
Enfocom was a third party software support company for Advanced Voting Solutions prior to Idessa.
That was good stuff 99,
Just go here to read…the usual suspects
anon, flo
Okay. I checked and it’s okay. Sorry to hang you up. Carry on.
So, are these persons having lunch with George Bush in Calgary at this moment??
Woops, forgot to take you off the master moderation list when I reapproved those comments, sorry. I’m suffering from an excess of caution and a lack of coffee, here. All fixed.
I seen commenters over at FDL trying so hard not to link Unisys to this software, butt
Scroll down to: “UNISYS – THE MOSSAD’S TROJAN HORSE?”