Georgia Governor Brian Kemp awarded a $107 million contract to Dominion Voting Systems two weeks after he met with the Houston-based Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Atlanta.
Kemp met with Li Qiangmin, Houston Consul General of the People’s Republic of China, on July 12, 2019.
The Secretary of State’s office announced on July 29, 2019 that Dominion’s election services were procured to implement a “verified paper ballot system” in the state prior to the March 2020 presidential primaries.
Dominion Voting Systems, which operates voting machines in 28 states, has been accused of switching Trump votes to Biden in the 2020 election.
According to reports, the voting software company has multiple links to China, including a $400 million filing in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) one month before the election that links Dominion, UBS Securities LLC, and China.
The filing reportedly shows that UBS arranged a private placement of $400 million with Staple Street Capital III, L.P. on October 8, 2020.
Staple Street Capital, a private equity firm located in New York, purchased Dominion Voting systems on July 17, 2018, for an undisclosed amount.
The securities firm that arranged the transaction, UBS Securities LLC, is a division of UBS Americas Inc, which ultimately falls under UBS Group AG, a company listed on the SIX Swiss stock exchange.
Three of four board members of UBS Securities LLC are Chinese according to Bloomberg, at least one of whom appears to reside in Hong Kong.
Heavy reported that an executive board member of Staple Street Capital, William Earl Kennard, is a former ambassador to the EU who was appointed to that position by former President Barack Obama.
Also concerning to many, is Dominion’s use of components made in China.
During congressional testimony in January, John Poulos, the President and CEO of Dominion, admitted that parts for their voting machines are manufactured in China.
“We do have components in our products that come from China. Our tabulated products have always been manufactured in the United States,” Poulos said. The Chinese components, he said, included “LCD components, the actual glass screen on the interface down to the chip component level.”
Additionally, there are new reports that a company owned by a Chinese firm manufactures modems that are used by Dominion in their voting machines.
Revealing yet another link to China, the National Pulse reported on Nov. 25 that the Core Infrastructure Manager of Information Technology at Dominion previously worked at China Telecom.
China Telecom is wholly run by the Chinese government, and has been identified by the U.S. Department of Defense as having collaborated with the country’s military for over two decades.
Similarly, the Department of Justice flagged the firm for “concerns that China Telecom is vulnerable to exploitation, influence, and control by the Chinese government” and how “the nature of China Telecom’s U.S. operations” provide “opportunities for Chinese state-actors to engage in malicious cyber activity enabling economic espionage and disruption and misrouting of U.S. communications.”
Huang, who fulfills the critical technology role at Dominion, worked at the Chinese firm from 1998 to 2002.
In July of 2019, Li Qiangmin, Consul General of the People’s Republic of China, met with Kemp in Atlanta to discuss trade and tourism issues, according to U.S. China News.
On behalf of the state government, Governor Brian Kemp thanked Consul General Li Qiangmin for his contribution to the development of Trade and Tourism between China and Georgia over the past five years. Consul General Li stressed the importance of the development of friendly relations between China and the United States and welcomed Governor Brian Kemp’s early visit to China.
After the meeting, Gov. Brian Kemp personally presented “Inspired Georgia” to Consul General Li Qiangmin on the title page of the book. Consul General Li also returned fine Chinese crafts to the governor.
Also attending the meeting were the Executive Director of China Affairs of the Georgia Economic Development Agency, China Chief Representative (Global Business) Xu Siwei and Jassy, China Manager of the Jozhou Tourism Bureau, and Liu Bo and Ge Mingdong, Head of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston.
About two weeks later, Kemp procured a $107 million ten-year contract with Dominion, which covered 30,000 touch screen voting machines and the installation of a “verified paper ballot” voting system, according to Forbes.
“$89 million in payments were front-loaded into the first two-years of the contract,” Forbes reported.
The deal was opposed by both Republicans and Democrats in the Georgia legislature.
The New York Times reported in June of 2020 that there was “some evidence that heavy lobbying and sales tactics have played a role in their adoption in Georgia and elsewhere.”
According to the report, Georgia has eight registered lobbyists for Dominion, including Lewis Abit Massey, a former Democratic Georgia Secretary of State, and Jared Thomas, former chief of staff for Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
