Smartmatic was contracted in 2004 for the automation of electoral processes in Venezuela. Since 2004, its election technology has been used in local and national elections in Africa, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Italy Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the U.S. and Venezuela. In 2016, they maintained the voter registry ahead of the elections in Uganda.
About Smartmatic in brief
Smartmatic or Smartmatic SGO Group is a multinational company that builds and implements electronic voting systems. The company also produces smart cities solutions, identity management systems for civil registration and authentication products for government applications. Smartmatic was contracted in 2004 for the automation of electoral processes in Venezuela. Since 2004, its election technology has been used in local and national elections in Africa, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Italy Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the U.S. and Venezuela. In 2014, Smartmatic’s CEO Antonio Mugica and British Lord Mark Malloch-Brown announced the launching of the SGO Corporation Limited, a holding company based in London. In 2016, they maintained the voter registry ahead of the elections in Uganda. During the 2017 Armenian parliamentary election, a voter authentication system was used for the first time. The identity of the voter was validated prior to voting using Voter Authentication Devices, which contained an electronic copy of the voting lists. The introduction of new technologies in the electoral process was strongly supported by the opposition and civil society. The final reports from International Elections Observers stated that the late introduction of the VADs could have led to a limited time for testing of the equipment and training of operators. According to the final reports, some significant problems with scanning documents of documents were noted with some significant issues with the integrity of the election proceedings. The International Electionsobverservers also noted that some problems with the scanning of documents of voting documents of operators, such as the failure to provide voters with the correct ID, could have been significant issues for the election process.
Smartmatic provided 4,000 Voter authentication Devices to the Electoral Process in Armenia, funded by the EU, United States, Germany, United Kingdom and the Government of Germany. It was also reported that the final report from the International ElectionsObservers said that the introduction of VADS was welcomed by most observers as a useful tool for building confidence in the integrity in the elections proceedings. In 2010, the company worked with the United Nations Development Programme and Zambian authorities to modernise the voter Registry using biometric technology. In 2012, the polling company supplied over 30,000 biometric machines across 28,010 polling stations, from the capital of Kampala to remote rural communities to verify the identity of over 15 million people. The aim of SGO, according to its CEO was ‘to continue to make investments in its core business, but it is also set to roll out a series of new ventures based on biometrics, online identity verification, internet voting and citizen participation, e-governance and pollution control. ’ The company has operated in Uganda, Zambia and is still deploying an identity management project in Sierra Leone. It is also working with the UNDP and Zambia on a project to modernised the voter registration system in Zambia. In March 2005, with a windfall of some USD 120 million from its first three contracts with Venezuela, Smartmatically then bought the much larger and more established Sequoia Voting Systems, which had voting equipment installed in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
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This page is based on the article Smartmatic published in Wikipedia (as of Feb. 07, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
