A defense firm that's just been awarded the testing contract for voting machines for Ireland, QinetiQ, is owned part by the British government and part by the Carlyle Group. It once was a lab of the Ministry of Defence but it is now a private company, says the Irish Times.
British firm with defence links to test e-voting system
Irish Times
Sitting on the board of advisers of Carlyle, in turn, are former prime minister John Major and former Sec'y of State James Baker [who is the newly appointed co-leader of the US Commission on Federal Election Reform]. Baker is due to retire as special counselor to Carlyle this month, according to the Globe and Mail.
Irish Times Apr. 16, 2005
British firm with defence links to test e-voting system
Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter
The Commission on Electronic Voting has awarded a contract to a defence firm partly owned by the British government to test if the new Irish electronic voting system is secure.
The contract award to QinetiQ is the first of several tests to determine whether the Government introduces electronic voting or maintains the traditional ballot. ....
The commission is now undertaking a more detailed review of the security of the Nedap-Powervote electronic voting system. ....
The commission's choice of a supplier to undertake a review of the electronic system could also prove controversial.
QinetiQ was formerly the national defence laboratory of the Ministry of Defence in Britain. It is now a private company.
However the British government retains a 56 per cent stake in the firm.
The remainder is held by US private equity firm Carlyle Group and QinetiQ staff. ....
Last week senior members of the Progressive Democrats at their party conference described the system as "expensive, undemocratic and unworkable" and called for it to be scrapped. ....
In the US, Votehere, a firm that hopes to encrypt and de-encrypt ballots or ballot 'receipts' in future elections, has had prominent military leaders in its launch.
Most worrisome to me about "privatizing" election procedures : Non-government workers are coordinating and building the voter registration databases for the states. These are employees of Covansys, Accenture, Unisys and ES&S. fyi, Diebold is not alone in favoring the GOP in its political donations. These companies play favorites too!
In November, a lot of people in 50 states went to the polls knowing they had registered, and found their names had been dropped from the rolls. The mishaps included registrations with motor vehicles not being carried through to their eligibility status.
Political donations (for federal candidates)of some of these firms are ---> here
{Scroll lower at the site, and you can track the contributions of leaders of the companies that test the voting software and hardware, too.)