Voting machine company denies Trump claims about software issues

Dominion Voting Systems, a Denver-based company that supplies voting machines across the United States, on Thursday rejected President Trump’s claim that it had “deleted” millions of votes in favor of the president. 

Earlier in the day, the president said on Twitter that Dominion had struck a total of 2.7 million Trump votes from its machines, including 221,000 in Pennsylvania that he claims were instead tallied for now-President-elect Joe Biden. 

“REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.” @ChanelRion @OANN

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020

Less than two hours after Trump’s tweet, Dominion shared a statement on Twitter, writing that it “categorically denies any claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems.” 

The tweet also included a link to a Wednesday press release fact-checking claims on voting, including allegations of software issues in states such as Michigan and Georgia. 

Dominion categorically denies any claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems. Please visit our Setting the Record Straight page for more information:https://t.co/DP6zry4LPq

— Dominion Voting (@dominionvoting) November 12, 2020

“Our systems continue to reliably and accurately count ballots, and state and local election authorities have publicly confirmed the integrity of the process,” Dominion wrote in a statement to The Denver Post Thursday. 

According to Dominion’s website, the company has voting machines in 28 states, including Florida and Ohio, which Trump won in both the 2016 and 2020 elections. 

The Associated Press and other major news organizations projected Biden the election’s winner last Saturday after his lead in Pennsylvania grew to more than 30,000 votes. 

Trump has refused to concede, repeatedly claiming without evidence that there were widespread cases of voter fraud in key battleground states as part of an attempt by Democrats to steal the election from him. 

These claims have since been disputed by election expert groups, local officials and the courts. 

In Dominion’s Wednesday news release, the company also addressed other rumors surrounding it, including claims that voting software updates were being done the night before Election Day and that ballots from voters who used Sharpie pens were not being counted. Dominion denied both claims. 

Dominion also said that allegations of ownership relationships with the families of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), as well as the Clinton Global Initiative, were false. 

It added that while it made a one-time philanthropic donation at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in 2014, the Clinton Foundation has no financial influence or involvement in Dominion’s operations. 

Last year, Georgia awarded a $107 million contract to Dominion to implement a “verified paper ballot system” in the state prior to the March presidential primaries. The move replaced prior voting machines in the Southern state with ones that print a paper ballot after the voter has selected their choices. 

The change was meant to serve as an additional protection against outside election interference, especially after reports of Russian attempts to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.