Thread by @econliberties

1/ Happy #MonopolyMonday!

Coming off the heels of last week’s election, we thought it would be fitting to spotlight the biggest voting machine monopoly — @essvote.

2/ Along w/ @dominionvoting & @HartInterCivic, @essvote dominates the production of voting machines.

But half of the country votes on @essvote machines alone. 😳
propublica.org/article/the-ma…

3/ More than 160 million Americans cast their votes in the 2020 Presidential election, nearly 9 in 10 individuals who voted in person likely used a voting machine made by @essvote, @dominionvoting or @HartInterCivic.
whowhatwhy.org/2020/09/22/the…

4/ During the 2018 election cycle, @essvote voting machines & servers caused delays and their issues even resulted in violations of election law.

fox59.com/news/politics/…

5/ According to @propublica, @essvote has a reputation among both its competitors & election officials for routinely going to court when it fails to win contracts or has them taken away, suing voting jurisdictions, rivals, advocates for greater election security and others. 🙃

6/ And the icing on top of this corrupt cake is that @essvote is owned by private equity firm McCarthy Group.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

7/ Under private-equity ownership, the voting machine market has become significantly consolidated.

In a little over a decade, at least EIGHT major vendors have consolidated into THREE, which control ~92% of the market.
wsj.com/articles/early…

8/ As @SenWarren described, PE firms “have taken over nearly all of the nation’s election technology—and how they do business is clouded in secrecy.”

9/9 It’s obvious that @essvote remains dominant because there’s little government regulation, little federal investment, and almost no oversight.

This is yet another example as to why monopolies are a serious danger & threat to our democracy.