Voting gear firm Dominion Voting Programs, a goal of false conspiracy theories from President Donald Trump and his supporters because the 2020 election, has been purchased by a agency run by a former Republican elections official, the brand new firm introduced Thursday.
The newly fashioned firm, Liberty Vote, additionally vowed to comply with the govt order Trump signed final spring in search of sweeping modifications to election insurance policies that a number of judges have placed on maintain for violating the Structure.
KNOWiNK, a St. Louis-based supplier of digital ballot books that permit election officers to substantiate voter info, introduced the deal and the title change. In a doable nod to a groundless conspiracy concept that linked Dominion to the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, the discharge highlighted that the corporate would change into “100% American-owned.”
The announcement additionally quotes KNOWiNK’s proprietor, former St. Louis elections director Scott Leiendecker, as vowing to supply “election know-how that prioritizes paper-based transparency,” one of many longtime calls for of election conspiracy theorists. Virtually all U.S. voting gear already leaves a paper path.
Dominion’s former CEO confirmed the sale in a single-sentence assertion on Thursday: “Liberty Vote has acquired Dominion Voting Programs,” John Poulos mentioned.
The discharge from the brand new firm vows to reintroduce “hand-marked paper ballots” and regulate firm insurance policies to comply with Trump’s govt order on voting procedures, which isn’t in impact as a result of judges have dominated that Trump doesn’t have the ability to mandate them. A part of the president’s order sought to ban voting gear that produces a paper report with “a barcode or quick-response code” — gear that’s presently in use in a whole bunch of counties throughout 19 states.
Denver-based Dominion was on the coronary heart of a number of the most fevered conspiracy theories about Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden within the 2020 election., These false allegations sparked numerous defamation lawsuits in opposition to conservative-leaning media and the president’s allies, together with a settlement in 2023 through which Fox Information agreed to pay Dominion $787 million and one this 12 months that Newsmax settled for $67 million.
The announcement from the brand new firm doesn’t disclose the price of the transaction, however a spokesman mentioned all the cash was put up by Leiendecker. Each firms concerned are privately held.
The false allegations in opposition to Dominion made its model poisonous in lots of Republican-leaning states and counties. However voting machine firms are normally cautious about making overt political statements, on condition that the marketplace for their gear is cut up between locations beneath Republican and Democratic management.
The statements by Liberty Vote saying it is going to align with Trump’s govt order, which has been challenged by Democratic state attorneys basic, the Democratic Nationwide Committee and an array of voting and civil rights teams, may result in considerations in blue states that presently use Dominion gear.
However some election officers mentioned Thursday that KNOWiNK had appeared to keep away from 2020 conspiracy theories and acted like a typical, nonpartisan agency.
“They’ve an excellent fame within the subject,” Stephen Richer, a Republican who was focused by Trump and his allies when he served as the highest elections official in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which incorporates Phoenix.
Regardless of years of detailed debunking of the Dominion conspiracy theories, Trump has continued to repeat them whilst lately as a couple of weeks in the past, when he vowed to eliminate voting machines. The president doesn’t have the ability to do this as a result of the Structure offers states and Congress the authority to set election and voting guidelines.
