Cook County, Illinois elects to implement technology from Sequoia Voting Systems

Oakland, May 26, 2005.- After months of discussions, demonstrations and research, David Orr, County Clerk of Cook County, Illinois announced that suburban Cook County voters will have the option of voting on either an optical scan voting system or an accessible electronic voting machine with voter verifiable paper records. Both machines will be supplied by Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland, California.

''Cook County worked with the City of Chicago to conduct the most extensive review of voting technology options in the nation,'' said Sequoia President Tracey Graham. ''We are proud that the Sequoia optical scan and verifiable electronic voting technology was chosen as the best match for the County's exacting specifications.''

Cook County voters will be able to cast a paper ballot at the polls that is read by a Sequoia Insight ballot scanner, which will immediately warn voters if they have made errors in marking their ballot. To comply with the accessibility mandates of the Help America Vote Act, the county will also deploy the Sequoia AVC Edge touch screen with VeriVote printers that can be used by voters with and without disabilities to accurately and securely record their selections.

In addition to federal election reform requirements for accessibility and voter notification, the State of Illinois also requires that electronic voting equipment provides a voter verifiable paper record for each voter?s ballot. Sequoia pioneered the voter verification concept during the 2004 primary and general elections in the state of Nevada. During the presidential election, Nevada posted the lowest voter falloff rate in the country at .237%, which was just a fraction of the national average fall-off rate of 1.1%.

The county will use federal Help America Vote Act grant funding to purchase the $23.8 million voting system.

**
About Smartmatic
Smartmatic is a multinational company that specializes in the design and end-to-end deployment of complex purpose-specific technology solutions. With an unsurpassed technology base, continuous innovation, and quality in processes and results, Smartmatic is organized around three business areas: Electronic voting systems, intelligent and integrated security systems for large enterprises and governments, and advanced solutions for people registration and authentication for a wide range of government applications.

Smartmatic is a privately held company with offices in the US, Mexico, Venezuela, Barbados, Spain, Philippines and Taiwan.  It has more than 200 employees worldwide.  Its capacity for innovation and wide range of products and services have earned Smartmatic extensive recognition in the technology community worldwide.