Theres a small percentage of jurisdictions in the country -- a lot of them are in Florida -- who have decided they want to modem unofficial results to the election office, he said. On Christmas morning of 2020, a recreational vehicle exploded on the streets of Nashville near a building owned by AT&T that lies one block from the companys office tower. Spokespeople for both AT&T and Dominion have confirmed that AT&T did not hold a contract to audit Dominion, nor had any of Dominions equipment been moved to Nashville in preparation for such an audit. Dominion has played a central role in a number of unfounded conspiracy theories alleging election fraud, from foreign ownership to switching votes from one candidate to another. (Read more about, Breaking news meme generators are frequently used online to create fabricated headlines and chyrons such as this one. Some posts take the claim a step further, alleging that the former owner of the building was a board member of a firm that owns Dominion. Social media users have been sharing content online that claims AT&T had a contract to do a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems machines and that the Dec. 25 explosion in Nashville,. RUMOR ALERT: Dominion Voting Systems Fraud Claims The post, which has been shared almost 900 times, makes two claims: A building damaged in the Nashville explosion was holding Dominion Voting Systems machines set to be audited, and in New. Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos is not ruling out legal action against President Trump, whose surrogates have spent nearly two months alleging the Nov. 3 election, which Trump lost, may . "The loud speaker was to warn people that the bomb was going to go off.. 5:30a on Christmas morning was picked to ensure that nobody was around.. The claim implies the explosion was an elaborate plot to destroy voting machines that might have yielded evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. A newly-released court filing in the Dominion voting machines defamation lawsuit . Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. First, QAnon. Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . Social media is home to several conspiracy theories about the explosion in Nashville on Christmas Day. The post implies that the bombing was an attempt to stop the audit and cover up voter fraud. Dominion was founded in the wake of a different controversy: the failure of punch-card voting machines and their infamous hanging chads in the 2000 election. The reason? Staple Street Capital took part in a deal with management to acquire Dominion in 2018 (here and here). "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has dismissed the claim of an election hacking and vote manipulation operation known as Hammer and Scorecard. (here). The Poynter Institute Menu. And thats not what were about. New Dominion filing made public as defamation lawsuit heads to trial The post provides no links to evidence for their allegations. The Company offers voting systems and scanning devices, as well as resource planning, training management, quality control . These two tech experts also agree on the path forward, saying they are comforted by the fact that most Americans will vote this year on hand-marked paper ballots which are counted by machine and can be recounted by hand if the situation warrants. Both Dominion Voting Systems andAT&T confirmed the communications company was not contracted to audit Dominion's machines. Don't Buy the Debunked Dominion Voting Machine Conspiracy Theory Critics also argue ES&S has mislead jurisdictions into thinking their DS200 tabulators with modems are certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a claim they say is grounds for an investigation. He has independently become part of the broader Dominion conspiracy theories, though, with some claiming he's Joe Biden's brother-in-law. Swing-state counties that used Dominion voting machines mostly voted Other posts on social media have gone a step further, alleging that Dominion is tied to the bombing through ownership of the affected AT&T building. Behind it is the notion that if voting systems are not online, hackers will have a harder time compromising them. Then, a plume of smoke rises behind three light poles. . The Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying. The AT&T building the posts likely refer to was not the one outside which the bomb exploded on Christmas morning. Tim Walz signed into law one of the largest voter . While the investigation is ongoing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast ( here , here ). Posted By: Dreadnought, 2/28/2023 9:52:47 PM Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News highlights former House Speaker Paul Ryan's alleged influence over Fox News Channel's (FNC) editorial control, reportedly urging . Even though it has a blue Nashville and a blue Memphis. Serious political tensions and fears of COVID-19 have led record-breaking numbers of Americans to vote early this year, either by mail or in person. On Monday, The Associated Press debunked claims that Dominion has any connection with AT&T. The location of the heavily damaged buildings seen in the photograph accompanying the post appear to show 170 to 176 2nd Avenue North in Nashville after the explosion. Dominion provides election equipment and software to 28 states, including many of the swing states on which Trump has focused his post-election ire. All rights reserved. DNA from human remains found at the scene matched Warner, and investigators found financial records for components that he may have used to construct the bomb. This screengrab is being shared on social media without that context. However, both AT&T and Dominion have disclaimed the notion that the former company was engaged in audit of the latter, or that any Dominion-related systems were being moved to Nashville in preparation for a "forensic audit" (by anyone). Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday morning filed three $1.6 billion defamation lawsuits against two pro-Trump media networks and an outspoken Trump ally, the latest in a string of suits from the . New warnings of hacking risks for voting systems connected to the internet, New questions about voting machines as 2020 election approaches, Oregon officials say vote-by-mail system improves security and turnout, Manufacturers who make voting machines testify before Congress. There is no reason to suppose that it would be likely, or even possible, that these buildings, would be used to audit voting machines. Early Christmas morning, police in Nashville came across an RV parked on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building, whileresponding to reports of shots fired in the area, Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Don Aaron told The Tennessean that day. Donate State Editions California Florida In a letter obtained by NBC News sent to the EAC on Tuesday, the nonprofit public interest group Free Speech for People and the National Election Defense Coalition asked the agency to look into whether ES&S violated agency regulations by implying that DS200 voting machines with modems are EAC certified. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) owns Dominion. While William Kennard serves on Staple Street Capitals board, he is not one of the companys co-founders as these posts claim (here). "So, the explosion 'just happened . This is bogus. Even if an election is run perfectly, it doesn't matter to a sizable portion of the public who believes it was unfair. These are real, tangible things coming out of these baseless accusations.". NewsGuard, which vets news sources based on transparency and reliability standards, found recently that among the top 100 sources of news in the U.S., sources it deemed unreliable had four times as many interactions this year compared with 2019. Dominion did not respond to numerous requests from NBC News for their sales numbers. A spokesperson for Dominion Voting Systems confirmed to Reuters via email that the Stephen Owens at Staple Street has no family ties or business affiliations with Bidens sister, Valerie Biden Owens. Both companies have denied the posts claims, saying that there was no such audit and that Dominions machines were not recently transported to Nashville. Some of the posts (here) try connect the explosion to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama by claiming that William Kennard, Obamas EU ambassador and Clintons FCC chair, is on AT&Ts board and owns the Nashville AT&T building that was destroyed in the blast. AT&T does not hold a contract to audit Dominions software or machines and did not have any of the companys equipment in its Nashville building. Hart said that it has approximately 1,600 such tabulators in use in 11 counties in Michigan. There can still be security holes that allow hackers to get into the phone network.. In 2020, the controversy revolves around Dominion's voting machines, sparked by an erroneous result out of a Michigan county that's been blamed on human error, allegations of rigged Dominion software in Georgia and the fact Texas rejected Dominion's system due to security concerns. Dominion representatives havealsodenouncedthe conspiracy theory, calling it another "bizarre lie" with "zero credibility.". Their evidence: a grainy black-and-white video. Shortly afterwards, social media users began circulating variants of a conspiracy theory holding that AT&T had been engaged to undertake a "forensic audit of Dominion voting machines," the latter of which were frequent targets of false election fraud claims made by President Donald Trump and his supports after Trump lost his re-election bid in November 2020: The implication of the conspiracy theory was that the explosion had been intended to destroy the machines before they were audited in order to cover up evidence of massive voting fraud. The electronic voting system company accused the television network of spreading lies that Dominion machines were used to rig the 2020 election against Donald Trump. But to draw that connection, a number of other groups are brought into the fold and it doesn't add up. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. Some users seemed to recognize the story as fake, but others didnt. https://archive.is/qqjBh Paul E. Singer-Elliott Management, aka "The Vulture", reportedly controls CNN parent, AT&T, as well as Twitter. An executive for a voting machine company that has been the target of conspiracy theories in the aftermath of Donald Trump's 2020 election loss and been baselessly accused of swinging the. The AT&T buildingon Second Avenueis owned by BellSouth Telecommunications, an operating company of AT&T, according to local records. Social media users have been sharing content online that claims AT&T had a contract to do a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems machines and that the Dec. 25 explosion in Nashville, which damaged an AT&T building, was tied to this audit. He was present when the bomb went off, and he perished in the bombing," Cochran said. Some just say AT&T had a contract to conduct a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. John Bazemore/AP Hismotive is unknown. CLAIM: AT&T got a contract to do a forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems machines and those machines were recently moved . Q&A of the Day - Voting Machines Used in Florida's 2022 Elections With the 2020 presidential election only ten months away, Appel and Skoglund believe all modems can and should be removed from election systems. The ATT building in Nashville that was affected by the bomb was owned by Cerebus (sic) Capital. February 28, 2023, 1:26 PM. In the weeks following the election, the election technology firm Dominion Voting Systems has been the target of baseless allegations of election fraud, according to the Washington Post.Now a viral Facebook post attempts to connect President-elect Joe Biden to the company by claiming his sister is married to Stephen Owens, who, the post alleges, owns Dominion Voting Systems. Claims that two buildings that were destroyed on Christmas Day were both holding evidence related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election are untrue. New York State Police Director of Public Information Beau Duffy told Reuters via email they were unaware of any state police investigations relating to the claims linking the paper company to ballots. the dominion voting system that was the subject of an enormous amount of controversy, is a dramatic improvement over prior forms of voting. And I don't know that all these jurisdictions are aware of that because ES&S is advertising otherwise.. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays bombing, causing widespread communications outages. The explosion injured three other people and damaged businesses in downtown Nashville, including an AT&T switching center, which resulted in widespread communications outages. He also serves on 16 boards and commissions, on two of which he is the presiding member. More:Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims. "They" Sent This Tornado (with David French) - The Bulwark The state of Michigan is currently grappling with this issue. With unfounded fraud claims swirling, red California county dumps Dominion voting machines. The services and oversight found in the Secretary of State's office reach every department and agency in state government. The accusation started with a conservative activist in Colorado, Joe Oltmann. FACT CHECK: Does Joe Biden's Brother-In-Law Own Dominion Voting Systems? ", Both Snopes and AFP reached the same conclusion. In an email to PolitiFact, a Dominion spokesperson said the company and AT&T are calling on everyone to reject these baseless rumors: "Americans should continue to seek information from verifiable, trusted sources, such as law enforcement authorities.". 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