Former Republican official buys Dominion Voting — target of 2020 conspiracy theories

DENVER — DENVER (AP) — Voting gear firm Dominion Voting Programs, a target 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 shaped firm, Liberty Vote, additionally vowed to comply with the executive order Trump signed final spring searching for sweeping changes to election insurance policies that a number of judges have placed on maintain for violating the Constitution.

KNOWiNK, a St. Louis-based supplier of digital ballot books that enable election officers to substantiate voter data, introduced the deal and the identify change. In a attainable nod to a groundless conspiracy theory that linked Dominion to the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, the discharge highlighted that the corporate would turn into “100% American-owned.”

The announcement additionally quotes KNOWiNK’s proprietor, former St. Louis elections director Scott Leiendecker, as vowing to offer “election expertise that prioritizes paper-based transparency,” one of many longtime calls for of election conspiracy theorists. Nearly 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 stated.

The discharge from the brand new firm vows to reintroduce “hand-marked paper ballots” and alter 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 power 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 at the moment in use in a whole bunch of counties across 19 states.

Denver-based Dominion was on the coronary heart of a few 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 during which Fox Information agreed to pay Dominion $787 million and one this yr that Newsmax settled for $67 million.

The announcement from the brand new firm doesn’t disclose the price of the transaction, however a spokesman stated all the cash was put up by Leiendecker. Each corporations 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 corporations are normally cautious about making overt political statements, on condition that the marketplace for their gear is cut up between locations underneath Republican and Democratic management.

The statements by Liberty Vote saying it would align with Trump’s govt order, which has been challenged by Democratic state attorneys general, the Democratic National Committee and an array of voting and civil rights teams, may result in issues in blue states that at the moment use Dominion gear.

However some election officers stated Thursday that KNOWiNK had appeared to keep away from 2020 conspiracy theories and acted like a typical, nonpartisan agency.

“They’ve a very good repute 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 number of weeks in the past, when he vowed to get rid of voting machines. The president would not have the ability to try this as a result of the Structure offers states and Congress the authority to set election and voting guidelines.