An Oak Park tech consultant previously vouched for a voting device that was controversial, and supported by Hugo Chavez.
Kevin McDermott, who is currently the chief technology officer at Cook County Clerk’s Office, supported the system. McDermott is owner and president of Major Scale Technology Management.
Smartmatic provided the voting machines for the controversial 2004 recall election of Chavez.
Many are uneasy about its involvement with U.S. elections. However, despite the controversy with the system, Chicago and Cook County proceeded to award the company contracts.
“Smartmatic, which provided the election machines for the Venezuelan vote, can rightly claim that they have conducted one of the most closely watched, carefully audited, and statistically analyzed elections in recent history,” Oak Park-based Major Scale Technology Management wrote in a memo, the Chicago Tribune reported.
In 2004, Smartmatic was awarded a $91 million contract to provide 20,000 touch-screen voting machines for the recall election.
Aviel Rubin, who was a computer science professor with Johns Hopkins University, questioned why the country was changing its voting systems right before the election.
“I’ve never heard of Smartmatic,” Rubin told the Miami Herald in 2004. “I’d be very concerned about an unknown player with that big of a contract, especially in a place like Venezuela, where fraud is such a big concern.”
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