"The specific steps taken would depend on the recommendation and the timeline required to make changes effectively.. The wishes are that I forever have to look over my shoulder," Coomer said. Now, the alleged Dominion Voting Systems tie. 'It was a missile strike': Trump fans go nuts claiming Nashville bomb MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has promised for months since the 2020 election that he had obtained Dominion, Smartmatic and ES&S voting machines, and they would be on full. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth.. causing widespread communications outages. AT&T had a contract to conduct a forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems in Nashville just prior to a December 2020 explosion in that city. 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. Newsmax TV Airs Fact-Check on Smartmatic and Dominion - Mediaite The BoykinZ emerge from TikTok as youngest stars in country's Black Williamson County to ditch Dominion voting machines after state review In counties that used Dominion systems, Biden got 888,259 votes to Trump's 851,069. False. The Genesius Times describes itself as the "most reliable source of fake news on the planet" and that it strives "to provide the most up-to-date, accurate fake news on the Internet,", "Nashville explosion a missile strike??" Dominion Going After Right-Wing Media Stars Over Voting Fraud 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. Dominion Lawsuit Showcases Paul Ryan's - lucianne.com Fact-checkers have debunked claims that the explosion was the result of a missile strike. That flood reached Dominion the week after the election, according to Zignal, and misinformation related to the company's machines has been mentioned more than 10 million times since then. Those modems connect to cell phone networks, which, in turn, are connected to the internet. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. Conspiracy theorists say the suicide bombing that rocked downtown Nashville was actually the result of a missile strike. ", Below the headline is an image that looks like its a picture from a CNN broadcast, with chyron that announces the Nashville bomber "died from COVID.". There is no evidence that the AT&T switching center damaged by the explosion (here) housed a supercomputer being used to alter the elections outcome. We can not make our computers perfectly secure," he said. 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. In an interview with Rochester's ABC 13, City Blue Imagingsales manager John Mealy condemned misinformation about the tragedy and dismissed the claims again. Yet internet sleuths are searching for their own answers, some looking atthin ties toconspiracy theories about the 2020 election as evidence of a broader plot. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. No amount of transparency at the county and state level can really combat the sort of megaphone that Trump wields, Kiniry says. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Much of the voting equipment was by Dominion. While the voting machines themselves are not designed to be online, the larger voting systems in many states end up there, putting the voting process at risk. But that is an overstatement, according to a team of 10 independent cybersecurity experts who specialize in voting systems and elections. The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies. 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. PolitiFact - No, AT&T was not conducting an audit of Dominion Voting "You can see as theres a line flying in, theres a little bit of a glow and then theres the explosion," a narrator says in the video. Some shorter posts here and here say: Wait, the bombing in Nashville was at the AT&T Data Center right after they got the contract to audit the Dominion Voting machines? Similar claims have been shared in hundreds of public posts, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. However, he is not tied to Joe Biden and is not his sister Valerie Biden Owens husband. reads the post caption from Red Pill Radio, a Facebook account that bears the slogan of the, However, the firm cited in that version of the claim Cerberus Capital Management doesnt own Dominion nor is it connected to Staple Street Capital, which, PolitiFact's partnership with Facebook here, Our ethics policy for PolitiFact journalists, WRAL partners with PolitiFact NC to fact check political stories. Ohio county rejects Dominion voting machines in response to pressure The Company offers voting systems and scanning devices, as well as resource planning, training management, quality control . The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. Those networks are among the defendants Coomer is suing. While lawmakers questioned them about foreign influence in their supply chains and whether they would comply with more federal reporting requirements, the presence of modems in some of their tabulators was mentioned but not pursued. Don't Buy the Debunked Dominion Voting Machine Conspiracy Theory We therefore again respectfully request that EAC investigate and take action to correct this serious issue., Once you add that modem, you are de-certifying it, Skoglund said. PolitiFact - No, AT&T was not conducting an audit of Dominion Voting It really is. And then run the ballots through the machine a few times. "AT&T got a contract to do forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and those machines were being moved to Nashville this past week," one Dec. 27 post says. A spokesperson for the FBI's Denver Field Office confirmed that the FBI executed the . Shasta will be the first of 40 California counties that used Dominion in the November 2022 election to drop the voting system, Shasta County Clerk/Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen told the . With unfounded fraud claims swirling, red California county dumps Dominion voting machines. "AT&T got a contract to do forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and those machines were being moved to Nashville this past week," one Dec. 27 post says. Law enforcement authorities have suggested that Warner may have been paranoid about 5G technology, a QAnon-related conspiracy theory that makes an array of unproven claims including that ithelps spread COVID-19and is used as a spying tool by the government. Dominion Voting Systems hits conservative networks, Trump ally with $1. Next theory: The bombing was an attempt to stop an AT&T audit into Dominion software and cover up election corruption. Some users seemed to recognize the story as fake, but others didnt. There is no evidence that suggests that the explosion was election-related. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. The post's creator did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. We found over 35 [voting systems] had been left online and were still continuing to find more, Kevin Skoglund, a senior technical advisor at the election security advocacy group National Election Defense Coalition, told NBC News. 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. VERIFY: No, AT&T was not auditing voting machines inside a building Were focusing on moving forward.. There may not be answers to the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville anytime soon. First, QAnon. We kept hearing from election officials that voting machines were never on the internet, he said. . Reuters Fact Check previously debunked this claim here . The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle owned by Warner. "Conspiracy theory links false claim of AT&T election audit to bombing, Fact check: Hugo Chvez's family does not own Dominion Voting Systems, Fact check: Dominion voting machines didn't delete votes from Trump, switch them to Biden, Live politics updates: Dominion says it may sue over election conspiracy theories, subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy, Cision PR Newswire archive, July 16, 2018, ", The Tennessean archives, July 23, 2004, ", News Channel 5 Nashville archives, Dec. 18, 2006, ", Email correspondence withJim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T, Email correspondence with a spokesperson for Dominion Voting Systems. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays bombing, causing widespread communications outages. The AT&T buildingon Second Avenueis owned by BellSouth Telecommunications, an operating company of AT&T, according to local records. So that unofficial election results can more quickly be relayed to the public. One theory shared thousands of times on Facebook over the weekend tries to connect the explosion to voting machines used in the Nov. 3 election. Heres why:In the wake of theChristmas morning explosion in Nashville, Tenn., a baseless conspiracy theory startedcirculatingonlinethat claims Nashvilles downtown AT&T complex, which was damaged in the blast, had gotten a contract to conduct a "forensic audit" on Dominion Voting Systems machines. Hart said that it has approximately 1,600 such tabulators in use in 11 counties in Michigan. 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. While William Kennard serves on Staple Street Capitals board, he is not one of the companys co-founders as these posts claim (here). A Dec. 14 Facebook video, viewed more than 23,000 times, claimed in its caption that "Trump WON The Election NEW Evidence Shows" because "a forensics report done on Dominion voting machines . While federal investigators are still looking into the bombing, law enforcement officials have said Warner was responsible and died in the blast. ES&S confirmed they had sold scanners with wireless modems to at least 11 states. Coomer said in addition to his own information, the personal addresses of everyone from his parents and siblings to his ex-girlfriends have been posted online. 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. Dominion Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software. A Michigan judge ordered the release Monday of an independent forensic audit report of the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Antrim County, which flipped from a win for Democrat Joe Biden to President Donald Trump after a glitch was discovered and corrected. The investigation of the Nashville bombing is ongoing, but the Facebook post is inaccurate and ridiculous. Kevin Monahan is a producer for the NBC News Investigative Unit. The FBI confirmed that a man named Anthony Warner was responsible for the bombing and was killed in the blast. Claims that two buildings that were destroyed on Christmas Day were both holding evidence related to the 2020 U.S. presidential election are untrue. A spokesperson for Dominion Voting Systems told Reuters via email: Dominion calls on the media and the public to reject the baseless rumors circulating on social media, which suggest without evidence that there was some election-related connection to the Nashville explosion.. The building of City Blue Imaging (www.cityblueimaging.com/), a printing company in Rochester, New York, burnt down on Christmas morning after catching fire the night before ( here , here and here ). ", Dominion Voting Systems Employee Sues Trump Campaign And Allies, Alleging Defamation, Former Election Security Official Says It Will Take Years To Undo Disinformation, Barr Says No Need For Special Counsel For Hunter Biden Probe, Election Fraud Claims. The three largest voting manufacturing companies Election Systems &Software, Dominion Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic have acknowledged they all put modems in some of their tabulators and scanners. Sumit Ganguli - Harvard University - New York City - LinkedIn (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.). Full Story. "Some of the threats that I've gotten have made very clear that these actors are in it for the long haul. Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. provides voting machines and tabulators. Newsmax TV aired a stunning fact-check on Monday of claims made on the network about voting companies used in the 2020 presidential election. Joe Bidens Brother in Law, Steven Owens, is the cofounder of Staple Street Execs along with William Kennard (mentioned above).. This material may not be reproduced without permission. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. US Elections were November 3, 2020. The posts all tie AT&T with Dominion, holding the explosion to be alleged proof of conspiracy. Immediately, Coomer knew things would blow up. hide caption. If you have super majorities, Tennessee is like an R plus twenty state. Then, a plume of smoke rises behind three light poles. And thats not what were about. A Dominion spokeswoman said other company employees have also gone to more secure locations, been threatened and been digitally stalked. A post on Facebook theorized that the two disasters were connected by a plot to steal the election. Powell was one of the faces of the Trump. Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . Thats an interesting coincidence., Some posts read: So, the explosion just happened to be at the AT&T location where they just so happen to control the cooling system for the super computer and house the dominion voting machines and drives for forensic audit. Reuters found no evidence that Cerberus Capital Management (www.cerberus.com/) owns Dominion. 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. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Report Claims Dominion Ballot Error Rate Was At Least 85,000 Times FEC The West Bend clerk wrote, "The wrong marking device was used to mark the . Social media posts from the event tagged the far-right group the Proud Boys. He also serves on 16 boards and commissions, on two of which he is the presiding member. Smartmatic, a competitor of Dominion's that has also been the subject of wild rumors, has demanded that numerous news networks take back their allegations against it. That's false. On Monday, The Associated Press debunked claims that Dominion has any connection with AT&T. "The minute I saw it, it left a big pit in my stomach," he said. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. "Dominion and AT&T have both called on the media and the public to reject the baseless rumors circulating on social media, which suggest without evidence that there was some election-related connection to the Nashville explosion," a spokesperson for Dominion told USA TODAY. Georgia, the site of so much controversy in the 2020 election, hurriedly switched in response to a judge's order in 2019 from all-electronic voting machines to Dominion models that. View list by county(.pdf) and learn more about each system using the links below. Newsmax Settles Dominion Executive's Defamation Lawsuit, Apologizes Vandoliers Play Tennessee Concert in Dresses to Protest State's New See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Some have also received threatening letters. Cerberus Capital previously owned the AT&T Building, onceknownas the BellSouth Building,where the company has operated its Tennessee headquarters since the building's erection in 1994. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which provides cybersecurity frameworks for state and local governments and other organizations, recommends that voting systems should not have wireless network connections. Both sit on Dominion's board. With the 2020 presidential election only ten months away, Appel and Skoglund believe all modems can and should be removed from election systems. The printing business took to social media to debunk the claim itself. Coomer oversees product strategy and security for Dominion Voting Systems, the Denver-based company that has suddenly found itself at the center of many of President Trump's false claims about November's election, spread by allies and pro-Trump media. Previous claims had said the bomb had targeted the AT&T building and that Dominion Voting Systems machines were being audited there(here). The accusation started with a conservative activist in Colorado, Joe Oltmann. We should be unplugging all of these machines from the internet, Skoglund said. A team of election security experts used a Google for servers to challenge claims that voting machines do not connect to the internet and found some did. These are real, tangible things coming out of these baseless accusations.". The claim: Dominion Voting Systems is tied up in the Nashville bombing, based on the affected AT&T building's ownership and that the cellular company was contracted to audit Dominion's. "What we should do is remove all of the unnecessary, hackable pathways, such as modems. These claims are groundless. In counties that didn't use Dominion systems, Biden got 1.54 million votes to Trump's 1.52 million. 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. It was an assurance designed to bolster public confidence in the way America votes: Voting machines are not connected to the internet.. There is no evidence to support the claim that the Nashville bombing or City Blue Imaging's fire were connected to election malfeasance, so we rate this claim FALSE. Thank you for supporting our journalism. Warner died in the blast, according to authorities. "Thats an interesting coincidence.". Mike Lindell Claims Dominion Voting 'Cover-Up' Is 'Coming Apart' City Blue Imaging Services' Facebook, Dec. 27. Dominion told AFP the claim is "another bizarre lie being spread by known conspiracy theorists.". After that podcast went out, the threats quickly arrived. Chinese parts, hidden ownership, growing scrutiny: Inside - NBC News Behind it is the notion that if voting systems are not online, hackers will have a harder time compromising them. Coomer oversees product strategy and security for Dominion Voting Systems, the Denver-based company that has suddenly found itself at the center of many of President Trump's false claims about. why?" The conspiracy theory has grown into a movement that is promoted by right-wing extremists. These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth. "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. Last fall, when ES&S gave NBC News an exclusive tour at its headquarters in Omaha, Neb., Chief Executive Officer Tom Burt defended using modems when asked about the Sprint and Verizon modems seen in ES&S's testing area. More:Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims. Posts online claim that the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville was an attempt to cover up election fraud because AT&T was conducting an audit of Dominion Voting Systems machines and that the equipment was recently relocated to the companys building that was damaged in the blast.