Changes

In September 2003, after an impasse in the National Assembly, the Supreme Court named a new board of directors for the National Electoral Council (CNE). After months of intense deliberations that included two conflicting signature drives overseen by the CNE, political riots over the government's disqualification of questionable signatures, and the intervention of international electoral observers, the CNE certified the opposition's results and set the date of the recall referendum for August 15, 2004. According to the CNE, President Chavez won 59% of the vote. His opponents immediately contested that the results of the referendum were marked by electoral fraud. However, international electoral observation missions carried out by the Organization of American States and the Carter Center found no indication of systemic fraud.

In September 2003, after an impasse in the National Assembly, the Supreme Court named a new board of directors for the National Electoral Council (CNE). After months of intense deliberations that included two conflicting signature drives overseen by the CNE, political riots over the government's disqualification of questionable signatures, and the intervention of international electoral observers, the CNE certified the opposition's results and set the date of the recall referendum for August 15, 2004. According to the CNE, President Chavez won 59% of the vote. His opponents immediately contested that the results of the referendum were marked by electoral fraud. However, international electoral observation missions carried out by the Organization of American States and the Carter Center found no indication of systemic fraud.

Smartmatic affiliations with government politicians raised suspicions, with instances of an interior vice minister, Morris Loyo Arnáez, being hired to lobby for Smartmatic contracts and with the company paying for the National Electoral Council (CNE) president Jorge Rodríguez Jorge Rodríguez and his sister Delcy Rodríguez to stay at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida.<ref name="ABCsemana">{{cite news|url=http://www.abcdelasemana.com/2013/09/20/una-extrana-muerte-en-smartmatic/|title=UNA EXTRAÑA MUERTE EN SMARTMATIC|last1=Peñaloza|first1=Carlos Julio|date=20 September 2013|work=ABC de la Semana|accessdate=}}</ref> Vice Minister Loyo was paid $1.5 million by Smartmatic as a "sales commission" and his continual payments with the company eventually doubled.

[[Smartmatic]] affiliations with government politicians raised suspicions, with instances of an interior vice minister, Morris Loyo Arnáez, being hired to lobby for Smartmatic contracts and with the company paying for the National Electoral Council (CNE) president Jorge Rodríguez Jorge Rodríguez and his sister Delcy Rodríguez to stay at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida.<ref name="ABCsemana">{{cite news|url=http://www.abcdelasemana.com/2013/09/20/una-extrana-muerte-en-smartmatic/|title=UNA EXTRAÑA MUERTE EN SMARTMATIC|last1=Peñaloza|first1=Carlos Julio|date=20 September 2013|work=ABC de la Semana|accessdate=}}</ref> Vice Minister Loyo was paid $1.5 million by Smartmatic as a "sales commission" and his continual payments with the company eventually doubled.

A lawyer who had worked with Rodríguez, Moisés Maiónica, was allegedly employed by Smartmatic in order to provide legal and financial assistance to help with its selection for its 2004 elections.<ref name="JOHNsmart">{{cite book|url=https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf|title=SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. USES VOTE-COUNTING SOFTWARE DEVELOPED, OWNED, AND LICENSED BY FOREIGN-OWNED SMARTMATIC, A COMPANY LINKED TO THE VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT OF HUGO CHÁVEZ|last1=Bonifaz|first1=John|date=12 June 2008|publisher=[[National Institute of Standards and Technology]]|pages=1–13<!--|accessdate=28 December 2016-->|author1-link=John Bonifaz}}</ref><ref name="LNsmart">{{cite news|url=http://www.lanacion.com.ar/982136-el-abogado-chavista-arrepentido|title=El abogado chavista arrepentido|date=26 January 2008|work=[[La Nación]]|accessdate=}}</ref> Years after the election in December 2008, Maiónica pled guilty in the United States District Court for attempting to cover up the Suitcase scandal (Maletinazo scandal), an incident where Hugo Chávez attempted to finance Cristina Kirchner's 2007 Argentine Presidential Election campaign to influence [[Argentina]]'s presidential election, with Maiónica stating that he was working for Venezuela's spy agency, the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services.<<ref name="NYTsmart">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/world/americas/09suitcase.html?_r=0|title=Venezuelan Given 15 Months in Suitcase of Cash Scandal|last1=Barrionuevo|first1=Alexei|date=8 December 2008|work=The New York Times|accessdate=}}</ref>  

A lawyer who had worked with Rodríguez, Moisés Maiónica, was allegedly employed by Smartmatic in order to provide legal and financial assistance to help with its selection for its 2004 elections.<ref name="JOHNsmart">{{cite book|url=https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/itl/vote/SequoiaSmartmaticReport61208.pdf|title=SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS, INC. USES VOTE-COUNTING SOFTWARE DEVELOPED, OWNED, AND LICENSED BY FOREIGN-OWNED SMARTMATIC, A COMPANY LINKED TO THE VENEZUELAN GOVERNMENT OF HUGO CHÁVEZ|last1=Bonifaz|first1=John|date=12 June 2008|publisher=[[National Institute of Standards and Technology]]|pages=1–13<!--|accessdate=28 December 2016-->|author1-link=John Bonifaz}}</ref><ref name="LNsmart">{{cite news|url=http://www.lanacion.com.ar/982136-el-abogado-chavista-arrepentido|title=El abogado chavista arrepentido|date=26 January 2008|work=[[La Nación]]|accessdate=}}</ref> Years after the election in December 2008, Maiónica pled guilty in the United States District Court for attempting to cover up the Suitcase scandal (Maletinazo scandal), an incident where Hugo Chávez attempted to finance Cristina Kirchner's 2007 Argentine Presidential Election campaign to influence [[Argentina]]'s presidential election, with Maiónica stating that he was working for Venezuela's spy agency, the National Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services.<<ref name="NYTsmart">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/world/americas/09suitcase.html?_r=0|title=Venezuelan Given 15 Months in Suitcase of Cash Scandal|last1=Barrionuevo|first1=Alexei|date=8 December 2008|work=The New York Times|accessdate=}}</ref>  

After the presidential recall referendum of 2004, a controversy was raised about the use of electronic voting (SAES voting machines). Studies following the 2004 Venezuela recall elections found that [[Smartmatic]]'s network was "bi-directional" with data being able to be transferred both ways between Smartmatic devices and the telecommunications company CANTV, with alleged irregularities found between the Smartmatic and Venezuela's National Electoral Council election results.<ref name="EUtulio">{{cite news|url=http://www.eluniversal.com/2004/09/11/imp_opi_art_11490D.shtml|title=Fraude y posibilidad de rectificación|last1=Salgueiro|first1=Adolfo P.|date=11 September 2004|work=El Universal (Caracas)|accessdate=}}</ref> Other independent election monitors claimed electoral fraud and submitted appeals, and statistical evaluations including a peer-reviewed article in 2006<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cordero|first1=Maria M. Febres|last2=Márquez|first2=Bernardo|year=2007|title=A Statistical Approach to Assess Referendum Results: The Venezuelan Recall Referendum 2004|journal=International Statistical Review|volume=74|issue=3|pages=379–389|citeseerx=10.1.1.379.441|doi=10.1111/j.1751-5823.2006.tb00301.x}}</ref> and a special section of 6-peer-reviewed article in 2011<ref name="specialsection">[http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&page=toc&handle=euclid.ss/1330437927 Special Section: Revisiting the 2004 Venezuelan Referendum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728043017/http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&page=toc&handle=euclid.ss%2F1330437927|date=2012-07-28}}, ''Statistical Science'', 26(4), November 2011</ref> concluded that it was likely that electronic election fraud had been committed.

After the presidential recall referendum of 2004, a controversy was raised about the use of electronic voting (SAES voting machines). Studies following the 2004 Venezuela recall elections found that Smartmatic's network was "bi-directional" with data being able to be transferred both ways between Smartmatic devices and the telecommunications company CANTV, with alleged irregularities found between the Smartmatic and Venezuela's National Electoral Council election results.<ref name="EUtulio">{{cite news|url=http://www.eluniversal.com/2004/09/11/imp_opi_art_11490D.shtml|title=Fraude y posibilidad de rectificación|last1=Salgueiro|first1=Adolfo P.|date=11 September 2004|work=El Universal (Caracas)|accessdate=}}</ref> Other independent election monitors claimed electoral fraud and submitted appeals, and statistical evaluations including a peer-reviewed article in 2006<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cordero|first1=Maria M. Febres|last2=Márquez|first2=Bernardo|year=2007|title=A Statistical Approach to Assess Referendum Results: The Venezuelan Recall Referendum 2004|journal=International Statistical Review|volume=74|issue=3|pages=379–389|citeseerx=10.1.1.379.441|doi=10.1111/j.1751-5823.2006.tb00301.x}}</ref> and a special section of 6-peer-reviewed article in 2011<ref name="specialsection">[http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&page=toc&handle=euclid.ss/1330437927 Special Section: Revisiting the 2004 Venezuelan Referendum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728043017/http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&page=toc&handle=euclid.ss%2F1330437927|date=2012-07-28}}, ''Statistical Science'', 26(4), November 2011</ref> concluded that it was likely that electronic election fraud had been committed.

===From Referendum To Elections===

===From Referendum To Elections===