At the center of the pending lawsuits surrounding this general election is the integrity of electronic voting systems and the companies that own them. One company of particular interest is Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion), referenced by attorney Sidney Powell in multiple press conferences and interviews.
Powell has claimed that Dominion is responsible for switching, losing, and assigning different weights to votes. The attorney has also claimed that those who awarded contracts to Dominion did so for sweetened deals: guaranteed increased power and massive payouts. Powell further alleged that Dominion’s software and executives have ties to Venezuela and the late Hugo Chavez.
Dominion first came into Georgia when Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger awarded the company a near-$107 million contract for statewide voting systems last summer. Georgia is the only state to have Dominion in every single polling precinct because of a state law requirement to implement a uniform voting system. All of Puerto Rico also uses Dominion’s voting systems.
Close seconds are Nevada and Colorado – both use Dominion machines in nearly every county. And, a majority of Michigan counties use Dominion. In Arizona, the system is used by Maricopa County.
Georgia’s top elected official shares a connection with Dominion. Governor Brian Kemp’s former campaign manager and later Press Secretary and Chief of Staff, Jared Thomas, is a lobbyist for Dominion. Thomas first registered as their lobbyist last February – several months before Georgia awarded the contract to Dominion.
Election Systems & Software (ES&S) and Smartmatic USA both lost out on the contract. Price factored largely into the state’s decision – of the three final contenders, Dominion was the most cost-friendly.
Initial analysis of the voting system from Dominion uncovered issues immediately. The state found that the ballot scanning devices experienced “memory lockup” after processing 4500 ballots. Dominion assured the state that the issue wouldn’t affect the ballots; rather, the system design lacked a memory management unit and was therefore susceptible to memory fragmentation. The state thereafter reportedly verified Dominion’s statement through further testing.
Several months later, the voting systems experienced significant issues during its test run last November according to reports from voters and the media. However, the final report issued by Raffensperger’s office indicated that these issues comprised a low incident rate and were “caused by human error or interaction.”
Additionally, the report described how Dominion technicians fixed certain issues by accessing the system through WiFi – the same feature that concerned Texas state officials enough to prohibit the use of Dominion systems in their elections.
Then, during this summer’s primaries, the voting systems experienced multiple incidents of delays, crashes, reboots, and double-votes. Some of those issues even spilled over into the first days of early voting last month.
It doesn’t appear from any statements or reports that Raffensperger considered Texas’s decision to not purchase Dominion’s voting systems.
In an interview with Newsmax TV on Saturday, Powell claimed that both Kemp and Raffensperger benefitted from the deal with Dominion.
“Georgia’s probably gonna be the first state I’m going to blow up. And Mr. Kemp and the secretary of state need to go with it because they’re in on the Dominion scam with their last-minute purchase, or award of a contract to Dominion of $100 million. The state bureau of investigation for Georgia ought to be looking into the financial benefits received by Mr. Kemp and the secretary of state’s family about that time.”
Powell also affirmed that her legal team had learned of evidence to support her claims. There hasn’t been any indication of an investigation into either Kemp or Raffensperger.
The next day, the Trump campaign distanced itself from Powell in a statement made by President Trump’s attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis.
“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”
The statement came several days after last Thursday’s press conference in which Giuliani, Powell, and Ellis shared a joint preview of their evidence. Giuliani introduced themselves as the legal representation for the President and his campaign.
Later, Powell issued a response to The Wall Street Journal.
“I agree with the statement today. I will represent #WeThePeople and seek the Truth. I intend to expose all fraud and let the chips fall where they may. We will not allow the foundations of this great Republic to be destroyed by abject fraud.”
The same day, Twitter placed a temporary suspension on Powell’s account without explanation. Since the suspension was lifted, Powell hasn’t issued any tweets of her own.
Monday evening, U.S. General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy announced that the White House will begin the formal transition process.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
Image “Attorney Sidney Powell” by Real News Insights.
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