Dominion's election management system will run on Windows 10, mitigating concerns from election security advocates about voting systems that use Windows 7, an operating system that. In a video posted Nov. 30 to Facebookon the page Community Tap News,a man who claims to be a Biden voter and who said he originally doubted claims of election fraud, said that after tuning into a meeting featuring Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis and Arizona state lawmakers, he began to doubt the legitimacy of the election. Dominion Voting Systems, a primary target of baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, will "definitely" file more lawsuits against those who pushed those false claims . The government delegated to them the most important governmental function, mainly counting votes in a presidential election. Those claims were debunked by Maricopa County officials even before Election Day: "Even if there is bleed through it won't impact counting because our upgraded ballots have off-centered columns and our new tabulators only read the ovals," the county elections department tweeted on Oct. 26, 2020, for example. President Donald Trump on Tuesday shared a tweet showing a campaign donation from Dominion Voting Systems to an "anti-Trump Republican PAC" prior to the 2020 presidential elections. USA TODAY, March 26, "Dominion Voting sues Fox for $1.6 billion over false 2020 election fraud claims". And he says Fox well may succeed in convincing the court to knock out some of the claimed instances of defamatory statements to be put in front of the jury. [32], Dominion is the second-largest seller of voting machines in the United States. [119] This was taken as further proof that both sides anticipated the case going to trial. ", Fox's Jeanine Pirro is back in the hot seat in $1.6 billion election defamation case, anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum pushed McDaniel repeatedly, part of a lawsuit filed by the attorney and pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Lin Wood, to have his mental fitness evaluated as it weighed a complaint seeking to strip him of his license to practice law. The network's lawyers write, as they have before, that Fox was merely relaying inherently newsworthy claims by Trump and his surrogates. [2] It develops software in offices in the United States, Canada, and Serbia. And the results of its government penetration tests, in which authorized hackers try to break in so vulnerabilities can be identified and fixed, have yet to be revealed. NBC News examined publicly available online shipping records for ES&S for the past five years and found that many parts, including electronics and tablets, were made in China and the Philippines, raising concerns about technology theft or sabotage. [46][47], Dominion's architecture was also widely used in the 2018 Ontario municipal elections on October 22, 2018, particularly for online voting. [117] Sources also told the Times that Dominion was focusing on Lachlan Murdoch's reaction to President Trump's anger at the network calling Arizona for Biden, seeking to place him "in the room when the decisions about election coverage were being made". April 30, 2021, 10:03 PM PDT. Our position is that Dominion is the government, for purposes of the First Amendment. That has led to calls for ES&S and its competitors, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and Austin, Texas-based Hart Intercivic, to reveal details about their ownership and the origins of the parts, some of which come from China, that make up their machines. The News Corp. building in New York City, home to Fox News. And they are therefore subject to criticism in the exact same ways that the government would be subject to criticism in that situation. ES&S said it conducts quality assurance tests on the machines. [107], On July 11, 2022, the court docket for the case showed that Dominion had issued a subpoena to former Attorney General William Barr. In preparing for this November's election, the . That could include intellectual property, such as source code, materials or blueprints. [32], DVS voting machines operate using a suite of proprietary software applications, including Election Management System, Adjudication Client, and Mobile Ballot Printing. [115] According to Kushner, he spoke to Rupert Murdoch on election night 2020 after Fox News reported that the electoral votes for Arizona had been won by Joe Biden. The letter identified two passive investors, Nancy McCarthy and Kenneth Stinson, who own stakes of more than 5 percent in McCarthy Group. Virtually no laws govern the cybersecurity aspects of voting machine technologies. But he added that someone with enough time and access could make a machine inoperative or unusable., Although Wlaschin said the company would release an executive summary of the government testing, the company recently said it has nothing for external release. It said recommendations from the tests would be incorporated into future voting system releases.. A producer begged her peers in an e-mail not to let Pirro go on the air to spread baseless conspiracy theories pulled from dark recesses of the internet. An activation card is required for use, which is provided by a poll worker. Lindell told The New York Times, "I would really welcome them to sue me because I have all the evidence against them". [73] Powell, who had asserted there was a recording of Coomer saying this, acknowledged in a July 2021 deposition that no such recording existed. (The Center Square) - The Dominion Voting Systems, which has been used in multiple states where fraud has been alleged in the 2020 U.S. Election, was rejected three times by data communications experts from the Texas Secretary of State and Attorney General's Office for failing to meet basic security standards. The statement also says there are no ownership ties to the governments of China, Cuba or Venezuela. Dominion has filed suits contesting various unfounded claims about its systems. "[102], Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis, on June 6, 2022, denied a motion from Newsmax to dismiss Dominion's case against them. After configuration and setup are complete, the laptop only contains geopolitical information and no voter data. [1] This equipment includes the DVS ImageCast Evolution (ICE), ImageCast X (ICX), and ImageCast Central (ICC). The main claim in the post is FALSE, based on our research. ", Eddie Perez, board member at the OSET Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan outfit advocating for reliable and transparent election technology, calls the claims about Dominion that were amplified by Fox hosts and peddled by its guests "outlandish. Fox News' attorneys have set out the starkest defense yet against the accusation the network defamed an election-technology company when it broadcast false claims that the company had cheated then-President Donald Trump of victory in the 2020 election. Coomer also said that Oltmann had falsely claimed in a podcast that Coomer had participated in a September 2020 conference call with members of antifa, and that during the call he had said, "Don't worry about the election, Trump is not gonna win. The software allows for various settings, including cumulative voting, where voters can apply multiple votes on one or more candidates, and Ranked Order Voting, where voters rank candidates in order of choice and the system shifts votes as candidates are eliminated. She has kept a report on a theoretical voting machine flaw authored by a respected computer researchersecret since last summer, citing concerns that releasing the report would fuel conspiracy. In mid-December 2020, Perez appeared on Fox as an expert for an awkward segment in which he was interviewed by an off-camera producer to debunk claims made on the network about a second voting technology company called Smartmatic. Additionally, no foreign national or foreign government has a stake in the company. Dominion's attorneys have deposed people throughout the Fox hierarchy, from junior producers to stars, to executives, to most recently, controlling owner Rupert Murdoch, who sat for questioning under oath at the Fox Studio lot last Thursday and Friday. ", "If anything, because they were so outlandish, they immediately attracted widespread attention and were debunked," Perez says. [96], The next day, district judge Carl J. Nichols denied motions by Lindell, Powell, and Giuliani to dismiss the lawsuits against them. There is no evidence that Terri McCullough, Pelosi's current chief of staff, holds an executive-level position at the company. Outside of Staple Street Capital and the Dominion's CEO, noinvestor owns more than a 5% stake of the company. Fox and Dominion did not comment for this story. The letter to Carone asserted that, despite Carone presenting herself as a Dominion insider, she was "hired through a staffing agency for one day to clean glass on machines and complete other menial tasks". [64][65] Eric Coomer, Dominion's director of product strategy and security, went into hiding soon after the election due to fear for his and his family's safety. Get these in your inbox: We're fact checking the news and sending it to your inbox. President-elect Joe Biden officially secured the presidency after the Electoral College met to give him and Vice President-elect Harris 306 votes. During the voting process, the machine generates a marked paper ballot that serves as the official ballot record. Dominion's $107 million, 10-year voting system comes in lower than the state's budgeted amount. [121], On October 20, 2022, Fox's lawyers asked the court to sanction Dominion alleging they destroyed evidence electronic messages between CEO John Poulos and senior executives Kay Stinson and Waldeep Singh. Cynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. [20][21], Dominion Voting Systems Corporation was founded in 2002 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by John Poulos and James Hoover. In the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, outgoing President Donald Trump, along with many of his allies and supporters, promoted a slew of unfounded conspiracy theories and. The Fox News data authority says the numbers are ironclad. He alleged that Smartmatic had ties to the late Venezuelan autocratic leader Hugo Chavez and warned that both election tech companies were attempting to defraud the U.S. voting public. "The voting machine lobby, led by the biggest company, ES&S, believes they are above the law, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Intelligence Committee who co-signed the letter. Its case relies on the theory that there was an effort - from top to bottom of Fox hierarchy - to appease viewers angered that Fox had been the first television network to call the key state of Arizona for Joe Biden in November 2020. ES&S had just acquired Premier from Diebold and was required to sell off Premier by the United States Department of Justice over anti-trust concerns. A developer and principle architect work on software. Sign up here to start receiving our newsletter. Among them: claims that the use of Sharpie markers in Maricopa County, Arizona, had invalidated the votes cast by Trump supporters because the ink often bled through the ballots. Pia Kjrsgaard sprger, om Sren Pind virkelig er den rette mand til at lede det nye medieansvarsudvalg ud fra udtalelser om, hvordan bloggere og influencers i hjere grad kan stilles til ansvar for det indhold, de publicerer og videregiver. [124], In early December 2022, the Delaware Superior Court filed notice that Lachlan Murdoch would be deposed under oath at a Los Angeles law firm. "Noforeign national directly or indirectly owns or controls the company," the statement reads. . [108][109] In response to the development, a spokesperson for Fox News stated: "We are confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs. [104][105] Dominion also pointed out that Murdoch's other media outlets The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post condemned the conspiracy theory, and urged Trump to concede, which the court held supported "a reasonable inference that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch either knew Dominion had not manipulated the election or at least recklessly disregarded the truth", and therefore should be subject to factual discovery. In countering Dominion, Fox's lawyers offer a chart of offending statements and what it termed the "omitted context" that could explain why the material was newsworthy, why the Fox hosts' treatment of it was responsible, and then why it was not defamatory. Dominion was founded in Canada in 2003 and its majority owner is Staple Street Capital, which is based in New York. By Dennis Romero. [11][12][13][14], Dominion filed defamation lawsuits against former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell on January 8, 2021, and against Giuliani on January 25, 2021, asking for $1.3 billion in damages from each. Terri McCullough Chief of Staff, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. House of Representatives New York, New York, United States 2K followers 500+ connections Join to view profile Speaker Nancy Pelosi,. Burt, a native Nebraskan, has called for federal regulations that would require voting machine companies to address some of the key questions posed to ES&S. "[117] While Fox continues to claim that any statements made on air were covered by the First Amendment, and as such can not be considered defamation, the Times reported that "Fox has also been searching for evidence that could, in effect, prove the Dominion conspiracy theories weren't really conspiracy theories. ES&S Chief Executive Tom Burt dismissed criticism as inevitable and impossible to answer, but he called for greater oversight of the national election process. Lindell had recently bragged publicly of disregarding an FBI request to not disclose the seizure of his phone in an unrelated criminal case involving Tina Peters, a Republican Mesa County clerk who was charged in engaging in a data breach of Dominion Voting System machines. There is also the concern of machines shipped with undetected vulnerabilities or backdoors that could allow tampering. Dominion's legal team is counting on a rich reservoir of material from their questioning of Fox journalists and executives under oath and from mining their emails, texts, and other communications. Dominion Voting Systems, which makes software and hardware for election officials to use around the country, is at the center of baseless claims that say "glitches" from its machines caused . OMAHA, Neb. [14], After Dominion filed the lawsuit against Powell, OANN removed all references to Dominion and Smartmatic from its website without issuing public retractions. Click under Exam Date for examiner reports. Dominion Voting Systems, an elections technology company founded in Toronto, is being targeted by U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies as they claim the recent presidential election. Haspel is not dead. In glass-walled rooms etched with the companys patents, technicians tested machines under tight security. [81], Under threat of litigation, on January 15, 2021, the conservative online magazine American Thinker published a retraction of stories it published asserting that Dominion engaged in a conspiracy to rig the election, acknowledging, "these statements are completely false and have no basis in fact". Facing a defamation lawsuit, conservative television outlet Newsmax on Friday apologized to Dominion Voting Systems security director Eric Coomer . [110] By July 13, 2022, Kleinhendler withdrew from the team. "[96], In response to pressure from advocacy groups opposing false claims of electoral fraud, and despite an angry response from U.S. That's what will cut through the noise.. [51], Trump and others also made unsubstantiated claims that Dominion had close ties to the Clinton family or other Democrats. [29] Hoover, Vice President, has an MSc in mechanical engineering from the University of Alberta.[30]. Im going to ask for this information on the basis of your report within 10 days, he said. Dominion . Allegations of voter fraud in Detroit. ES&S machines underwent eight weeks of vulnerability testing and penetration by government hackers. Plaintiff's attorneys were ordered to pay $180,000 for the defendants' attorneys' fees, with the judge finding that the lawsuit was filed "in bad faith" and made frivolous arguments. "[108], In early July 2022, two lawyers from U.K.-based Kennedys Law LLP, Michael J. Tricarico and Marc Casarino joined Powell's legal team of Lawrence J. Joseph and J. Howard Kleinhendler in the defamation cases involving Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. So Say Fox's Lawyers, Fox News CEO warned against 'crazies' after 2020 election, Dominion says, didn't believe the claims of fraud "for one second. Antrim County, a predominantly Republican county in . Fox's supplemental filings last week also reproduce the affidavit of an anonymous man said to be a security guard for a Venezuelan president. Dominion Voting Systems explains on its website here that its CEO is John Poulos, who is also one of the company's founders. "Quoting the president of the United States and relying on a 'fair report' privilege only gets you so far," says Dalglish, a noted First Amendment advocate and media lawyer. Various rumors alleging voter fraud focused on the Electronic voting company Dominion Voting Systems. In June, he wrote an op-ed asking Congress for more regulation, which would include requirements for paper backups of individual votes, mandatory post-election audits and more resources for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to speed improvements. [68], On December 22, 2020, lawyers representing Eric Coomer, Dominion's director of product strategy and security (who had been forced to go into hiding due to death threats), filed a defamation lawsuit on his behalf in the state of Colorado. [69][70] Additionally, conservative media outlets OANN, Newsmax, and The Gateway Pundit were also named. It has . [2] It develops software in offices in the United States, Canada, and Serbia. The employee received death threats as a result, and a noose was found hanging outside his home. Dominion Voting Systems includes a page on its website addressing viral claims about the 2020 election. "And there really was no support for them other than a couple of crackpots.". Published Nov 8, 2020. This story has been updated to correct Martha MacCallum's first name. Dominion Voting was discovered to not only have been used in Antrim County but in more than 40 additional counties in the state of Michigan. The election technology firm states there that claims of its voting machines switching votes are "baseless" and "have been debunked by election officials, subject matter experts and third-party fact checkers." The defamation suit against Mr. Giuliani seeks more than $1.3 billion in damages. That explains the sustained embrace of unsustainable claims, Dominion's legal team argues. It ran on the shows hosted by Dobbs, Bartiromo and Pirro. Lindell's filing said the companies had "weaponized" the courts in an act of "lawfare" to try to silence him. [127], Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, problems with the reporting of tabulator counts, Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, National Association of State Election Directors, National Association of Secretaries of State, Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy, Smartmatic 2020 presidential election and defamation lawsuits, Fox News controversies False claims about the 2020 election. [23][24], In May 2010, Dominion acquired Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold Election Systems, Inc.) from Election Systems & Software (ES&S). President Trump has openly criticized Dominion as he attempts to challenge voting results across the country, alleging widespread voter fraud and tweeting about the company Friday afternoon.. [7][8][9] Within days after the election, the Trump campaign had prepared an internal memo on several of the allegations against Dominion, and found them to be baseless. But once theyve done that, they focus on selling their product.. Resolved: Release in which this issue/RFE has been resolved. The attorney has been unable to get Dominion's suit tossed and is seeking $10 million in damages. Denver, CO | Toronto, ON dominionvoting.com Joined July 2010. Officials in Maryland and North Carolina have started questioning voting machine makers about potential foreign ownership. "[101] The Daily Beast reported that Lindell had hired veteran First Amendment lawyer Nathan Lewin, and was also receiving informal advice from Alan Dershowitz, who stated "My role is to come up with ideas as they pertain to the First Amendment. [58][59] Asserting that Krebs's analysis was "highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud", Trump fired him by tweet days later. [122][123], On December 5, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a case, Kevin ORourke, et al., v. Dominion Voting Systems, Inc., et al., rejected by lower courts. And criticism of how the government conducted a presidential election is the highest bar protecting the First Amendment right to criticize such action. Media. (The Murdochs and Fox refused to reverse the projection despite intense pressure from Trump and his campaign.) The sworn deposition of an anonymous witness who said he was a former member of the Venezuelan presidential security team and accused Dominion of committing. After losing the 2020 presidential election, which wascertified by the Electoral Collegeon Dec. 14, outgoing President Donald Trump has waged a campaign of disinformation about election interference and voter fraud. Federal cybersecurity officials have verified there are software vulnerabilities in certain ballot-marking devices made by Dominion Voting Systems, discovered during a controversial Georgia. ImageCast Evolution is an optical scan tabulator designed for use in voting precincts that scans and tabulates marked paper ballots. [74] Dominion itself was not party to the suit, but released a statement saying "Sidney Powell and many othersincluding some news organizationshave trampled on countless reputations as they pandered their ridiculous conspiracy theories. [14] Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax all aired fact checks of their own previous coverage of Dominion and competitor Smartmatic after Smartmatic threatened lawsuits, and after they were listed as other groups spreading falsehoods about Dominion in the lawsuit by Dominion against Giuliani. No proof has emerged to support the unnamed man's claims against Dominion and Smartmatic. The GOP-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted in July to replace them. The system will also generate reports in Excel, Word and .pdf format, including total number of ballots printed and ballot style. [61], The disinformation campaign against Dominion led to their employees being stalked, harassed, and receiving death threats. Election technology company Dominion sues Giuliani for $1.3 billion over 'Big Lie' about election fraud. President-elect Biden on Electoral College vote: Clear victory. They include Burt, Chief Financial Officer Tom OBrien and the Omaha-based private equity firm McCarthy Group, which owns a controlling interest. [66] In one of their lawsuits, Dominion explained they had spent $565,000 on security as a result. Dominion was started by him," he adds. Dominion Voting Systems, About, accessed Nov. 9, 2020 Politico, Georgia election official: Machine glitch caused by last-minute vendor upload , Nov. 4, 2020 NBC News, Georgia county results . Here are four key things to know about Dominion, the voting machine manufacturer that is causing such a stir. [97], On April 20, 2022, Judge Nichols ruled that Dominion's defamation lawsuit against Byrne could move forward denying his motion to dismiss the case. The plaintiffs had alleged that Dominion, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, and the Center for Tech and Civic Life "engaged in concerted action to interfere with the 2020 presidential election through a coordinated effort to, among other things, change voting laws without legislative approval, use unreliable voting machines, alter votes through an illegitimate adjudication process [and] privately fund only certain municipalities and counties". ", "Posts falsify ties between election tech firm and Democrats", "Smartmatic does not own Dominion Voting Systems", "Networks airing side firms in fraud claims", "Giuliani's fantasy parade of false voter-fraud claims", "Did a Dominion Voting Systems Employee Brag About Rigging the Election Against Trump? [82] One of Dominion's attorneys explained they had filed the lawsuit against Powell first "because she's been the most prolific and in many ways has been the originator of these false statements". "[71][69][72] In April 2021, Newsmax published a retraction and apology on its website, saying it "found no evidence" to support the allegations against Coomer. Michigan Circuit Court judge Timothy Kenny had previously ruled that an affidavit Carone had filed was "simply not credible". The secrecy of ES&S and its competitors has pushed politicians to seek information on security, oversight, finances and ownership. What you have found is particularly important because of the China connection, he said. Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, was recently sued by Dominion Voting Systems for statements he made accusing the voting machine manufacturer of switching votes to President Biden in the 2020 presidential election. [13] Dominion sent a similar letter to former Trump attorney Sidney Powell demanding she retract her allegations and retain all relevant records; the Trump legal team later instructed dozens of staffers to preserve all documents for any future litigation.