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As poll workers counted the votes in the U.S. presidential election, many social media users interpreted a clerk’s mistake in a small Republican-leaning Michigan county as vote rigging because it favored wrongly Joe Biden before being corrected.
A week later, that misinterpreted error turned into a deluge of misrepresentation that Democrats have deep ties to Dominion Voting Systems, the company that supplies election materials to Michigan and dozens of other states in the United States. country.
Claims that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, and the Clinton Foundation have any interest in or influence in Dominion are all without merit. But that hasn’t stopped tens of thousands of social media users from amplifying them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week.
Here’s what you need to know about the lies that are spreading in the Dominion’s voting systems.
CLAIM: Leading Democrats including Pelosi, Feinstein and the Clinton family have a deep interest or relationship with Dominion Voting Systems, the second-largest voting provider in the United States, whose equipment has been used in several States of the battlefield in the 2020 elections.
PA RATING: False. Dominion made a one-time philanthropic commitment at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in 2014, but the Clinton Foundation has no interest or involvement in Dominion’s operations, the nonprofit confirmed to the Associated Press. A former Pelosi associate represented Dominion as a lobbyist, as did lobbyists who worked for Republicans. Claims that Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum owns a stake in Dominion are baseless.
THE FACTS: When County Antrim, Michigan first reported a landslide Joe Biden victory in the US presidential election, social media users were wary of the Dominion’s election management system in use to compile the data.
It turned out that Dominion wasn’t to blame, according to the Michigan State Department. “There was no malice, no fraud here, just human error,” County Clerk Sheryl Guy told the AP.
The problem was quickly corrected and President Donald Trump won the majority of votes in that county. However, in the days following Biden’s victory in Michigan and the presidential election, Trump supporters have continuously tried to undermine trust in Dominion, which is used in at least 30 states., including key battlegrounds like Georgia.
Several widely shared social media posts this week exaggerated a unique connection six years ago between Dominion and the Clinton Foundation in order to claim that electoral software should not be trusted.
“Is it any coincidence that Dominion Voting is in bed with you guessed it… The Clinton Foundation?” read a tweet shared more than 7,000 times.
Some posts shared a screenshot of the Clinton Foundation website. This shows that in 2014, at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, Dominion made a philanthropic pledge to donate its electoral technology to emerging democracies outside of the United States as part of a three-year project.
However, this one-time engagement is not proof of a lasting relationship between the Clinton Foundation and Dominion, nor of foul play in the 2020 election.
The Clinton Foundation told the AP in an email that it is not helping to fund, receive funds, or participate in the implementation of commitments like this.
“The Clinton Foundation has never had an ownership interest in Dominion Voting Systems; we have never been involved in the operations of the company; and we can confirm that we are not currently working together, ”the nonprofit said.
Dominion donated between $ 25,001 and $ 50,000 to the Clinton Foundation in 2014, report says by the Washington Post, but its lobbyists also donated to Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Other social media detectors pointed to Dominion’s hiring of Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi’s former chief of staff, as part of his lobbying team, as alleged evidence of a connection between the company and Pelosi .
“What is the name of the company with all the voting machines that ‘glitch’ to create more votes for Biden? Dominion Voting Systems, ”read a tweet from Emerald Robinson, a reporter for the conservative cable network Newsmax. “Who is their DC lobbyist?” Nancy Pelosi’s help.
It’s true that Elshami is part of a lobbying team representing Dominion, public disclosures show.
However, that team also includes Brian Wild, who counts Republicans such as former Speaker of the House John Boehner and former Vice President Dick Cheney among his former bosses.
Jared Thomas, a longtime aide to Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, also lobbied for Dominion.
A third category of social media posts circulating this week attempted to link Feinstein to Dominion by claiming that her husband, investment banker Richard Blum, is a “major shareholder” with a 60% stake in the company.
“Can anyone tell me why Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum owns Avid Technologies (which provides the voting machines for our election)?” read an Instagram post viewed nearly 60,000 times.
In fact, Avid Technology does not provide election software for Dominion or any other company – and Blum’s company does not currently own any stake in it.
“To officially correct a misconception that arose on Twitter in the last 24 hours, Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) definitely declares that we are not developing vote counting software,” AVID wrote in a statement on Twitter. Saturday. “In addition, while Blum Capital was an investor in our company, it does not own any stake today.”
Dominion did not respond to requests for comment on these allegations. It is private and does not disclose its financial data. But in an April letter responding to a request from the House Administration Committee, Dominion CEO John Poulos said Dominion was 75.2% owned by the New York-based private equity firm. York Staple Street Capital and that he, a Canadian citizen, owned 12% stake. No other investor owns more than 5% of the capital, he said. Staple Street Capital has not returned any emails or phone calls for this story.
On Saturday, Chris Krebs, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, urged Americans to stop propagating unsubstantiated allegations that minor vote counting issues pointed to fraud.
“Seeing #disinfo that some isolated Election Day issues are linked to a nefarious election hacking and vote manipulation operation,” Krebs said on Twitter. “Don’t crack and think twice before sharing!”
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AP Technology writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Boston.
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This is part of The Associated Press’s ongoing efforts to verify misinformation widely shared online, including working with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of fake stories on the platform.
Here’s more information about Facebook’s fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536
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