Venezuelan Election A Dry Run For America’s Presidential Election?

Venezuela’s strongman President Nicolás Maduro just claimed victory in the country’s hotly contested presidential election. Many inside and outside Venezuela believe the regime massively falsified the vote count after credible exit polls Sunday showed Maduro losing to

challenger Edmundo González by a landslide.

Miami’s WLRN reported those exit polls had González up by more than 30 percentage points — a reflection of earlier voter polls that showed him leading the intensely unpopular Maduro by wide margins, and in scenes reminiscent of Donald Trump’s rallies here in the United States, the sea of supporters that greeted him and opposition leader María Corina Machado at campaign rallies across Venezuela.

In another strange similarity to our own election, the Maduro regime successfully barred the wildly popular Ms. Machado from running against the incumbent president.

It will surprise no one who has been paying attention, that the regime's electoral authority, the CNE, announced late Sunday night that Maduro had won with 51% of the vote to González's 44%. Maduro, who has been in power since 2013 and was seeking a third six-year term, declared victory and called it a "vote for peace" in Venezuela. (His 2018 re-election was also heavily stained by election fraud.)

As WLRN noted, the credibility of the CNE's count was further undermined by several other factors — not the least of which was that its seemingly sloppy and fabricated tally math, which included several other candidates on the ballot, added up to an impossible 132%.

In an eerie reminder of the 2020 election here in the United States, WLRN reported as of Monday afternoon the opposition and international election observers said they had only been given access to half the country's voter precinct tally sheets, known as actas. 

What makes the conduct of the election in Venezuela particularly troubling is the connection between Venezuela and the leading companies supplying election technology to jurisdictions here in the United States.

While many unproven claims about various election technology companies have circulated on social media, the researchers at justsecurity.org published a brief expose of the connections between Venezuela and Smartmatic.

Smartmatic, a leading supplier of election technology here in the United States was Investigated by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United Slates due to its ties to Venezuela. In 2004, Smartmatic machines, produced by sister company Sequoia, were chosen by Venezuelan authorities to be used in a contentious referendum that confirmed the late Socialist Dictator Hugo Chavez as President.

This election Is believed to have been tampered with, as an algorithm appeared to adjust the vote in Chavez favor. Before this election, the Venezuelan government controlled by Chavez invested in a smaller company tied to Smartmatic through its owners.

In return for the investment, the Venezuelan government was given a 28 percent stake in the company and a seat on Its board of directors. The Chavez government placed a senior member of the Science Ministry and advisor to Chavez on election technology, Omar Montilla, on the board. Venezuelan officials have subsequently claimed that the money was repaid, and that the Venezuelan government never directly had a stake in Smartmatic.

Our friends at InfluenceWatch later revealed the chairman of the board of directors for Smartmatic, Mark Malloch Brown, is a member of the Labour Party of the United Kingdom, and a member of the global board of directors for the Open Society Foundations, a left-wing private grantmaking organization founded by liberal billionaire George Soros.

Smartmatic sold Sequoia to Dominion Voting Systems, a Canadian voting machine manufacturer, in 2006 after the CFIUS began looking into its ties with the Venezuelan government. Smartmatic released a statement saying that its decision to sell Sequoia was not based on the increased scrutiny to its state-owned past, but due to increased debate in the United States over foreign ownership within sensitive industries. It is unclear if Dominion subsequently divested itself of Sequoia as some online sources suggest.

Not being on the ground for the Venezuelan election we can only quote what others are claiming about the irregularities in this, and the country’s 2020 election. However, we find it a strange coincidence that whenever claims of election irregularities pop up, be they in Venezuela, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, or the continental United States, the same Venezuelan-connected election technology companies are always involved.

George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com. A veteran of over 300 political campaigns, including every Republican presidential campaign from 1976 to 2004, he served as a staff member or advance representative for some of America’s most recognized conservative political figures, including Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin and Jack Kemp. A member of American MENSA, he served on the House and Senate staff and on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle. Rasley is a graduate of Hanover College and studied international affairs at Oxford University's Worcester College. He accompanied Vice President Dan Quayle to the inauguration of Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez on February 2, 1989.

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