Dominion Voting Systems

Dominion Voting Systems is a company that designs, manufactures, and sells electronic devices that assist with elections. The company was founded as a Canadian firm, but later officially moved to the United States. Some experts have raised security concerns with the widespread adoption of electronic voting machines, such as those sold by Dominion Voting Systems, worrying that hackers may be able to manipulate election results. However, Dominion Voting Systems has repeatedly assured voters that its machines still produce physical receipts of votes, allowing for independent verification of the voting record.

Following his defeat in the 2020 US presidential election, President Donald Trump used Twitter to accuse Dominion Voting Systems of rigging the election in favor of President-elect Joseph Biden. However, President Trump’s claims were found to be baseless. Dominion Voting Systems denied all allegations of voter fraud, and almost all experts refuted Trump’s claims. In January 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed federal lawsuits against attorneys representing Trump for statements about the integrity of the voting machines that Dominion alleged defamed the company. Additionally, the company filed legal action against the conservative media outlet Fox News, which aired the claims, in March. Similar defamation lawsuits and allegations also occurred during the 2024 presidential elections.

Background

Dominion Voting Systems was founded in 2003 as a Canadian company. Over the course of its operations, Dominion Voting Systems shifted its headquarters to the United States, officially becoming an American company. Dominion maintained offices in Denver, Colorado, as well as Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Dominion provides computer programs, databases, and hardware designed to speed the process of elections. Though they specialize in touchscreen voting machines, ballot printers, and ballot scanners, they also create and sell both devices and hardware that assist in election auditing and database management. Utilizing digital voting machines, such as those produced by Dominion Voting Systems, significantly accelerates the election process. For this reason, the majority of the elections in the United States by 2020 were using some form of digitized voting system. According to Dominion, the company’s machines were used by more than 40 percent of American voters across twenty-eight states.

Dominion’s primary product is ballot-marking devices. These devices allow voters to mark their choices on a touch screen, rather than filling out traditional paper ballots or utilizing machines that punch holes in specialized cards. After a voter confirms their selections, the machine prints a paper record that provides a summary of their selections. Voters may once again confirm that their selections are reflected on the paper before feeding that record through another machine. This machine scans the vote, allowing it to be counted by specialized computer software. Multiple models of these devices are available, with some models combining the two machines into a single device.

Overview

During the 2020 US Presidential Election, some voters and commentators expressed concerns about the accuracy or safety of digital voting machines. When asked about these concerns, Dominion replied that its equipment undergoes routine and thorough security checks. Additionally, because the devices produce a paper record of each vote, Dominion asserted that it would be exceptionally difficult for hackers to successfully modify the vote tally.

However, despite assurances by Dominion Voting Systems, some cybersecurity experts have expressed concern about the widespread use of electronic voting machines. They argue that it may be possible for a foreign entity or bad actor to manipulate the coding of voting machines so that the paper record does not accurately reflect the votes that were cast. This argument falls flat when the voter can visually confirm that the paper ballot is accurate before the ballot is scanned because the paper ballot can be used in recounts. The matter is further complicated by certain models of electronic voting machines that print records as bar codes, which provide another electronic aspect that hackers could theoretically manipulate.

During and following the 2020 Presidential Election, President Donald Trump alleged that voter fraud through the use of Dominion Voting Systems played a substantial role in his loss. Trump used his Twitter account to share a news item from the One American News Network (OANN), a conservative media outlet, stating that Dominion deleted 2.7 million votes for Trump across the United States. The president also alleged without evidence that Dominion switched 221,000 Pennsylvania votes from Trump to Biden.

The OANN report cited by Trump claimed that it drew its statistics from an unaudited analysis of data obtained from the election monitoring group Edison Research. However, in response, the president of Edison Research stated the company had produced no such report and had no evidence of voter fraud. Following this announcement from Edison, OANN declined to provide any additional evidence.

Dominion Voting Systems responded to Trump’s and his attorneys’ claims that it participated in widespread voter fraud on behalf of the Democratic Party. Dominion stated that it was a private American company, refuting false claims that the company was tied to socialists or Democrats. Dominion also stated that it had assisted in counting votes in tens of thousands of elections, always delivering votes in a nonpartisan manner. The company asserted that all of its systems are capable of producing paper records, and thus are subject to auditing, reviews, recounts, and other forms of verification from all political parties.

Regarding the 2020 presidential election, the company noted that audits and recounts performed on the voting records associated with Dominion Voting Systems machines confirmed the accuracy of the voting machines. Additionally, Dominion stated that all claims of fraudulent voting or widespread errors had been repeatedly dismissed by fact-checkers and election authorities. The company also stated that “malicious and misleading false claims about Dominion have resulted in dangerous levels of threats and harassment against the company and its employees, as well as election officials.” Dominion sent letters to Fox News and Newsmax, threatening to sue them for making false statements about the company and its voting machines.

On January 8, 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a lawsuit in federal court against Sidney Powell, a lawyer who had worked for the Trump campaign and made statements alleging Dominion voting machines had altered votes in the presidential election. The company sought $1.3 billion in damages. On January 25, Dominion filed a defamation lawsuit against Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer. The lawsuit alleged that Giuliani exploited false election fraud claims. The company sought more than $1.3 billion in damages. Both lawsuits were filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. In March 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News for the media source's involvement in spreading conspiracy theories and allowing false statements to be made about the company. Dominion reached a $787 million settlement with Fox News in 2023.

Leading up to and before the 2024 elections, Dominion Voting Systems was again at the center of various controversies, facing legitimate scrutiny and baseless allegations. Dominion and other voting machine companies addressed these claims and disinformation, launching defamation lawsuits and public fact-checking resources to restore public trust in the electoral process. Allegations that Dominion's machines had programming issues affecting vote counts were proven false. In 2025, Dominion focused on supporting election administrators and monitoring issues related to the 2024 election. The company encouraged voters to rely only on verified and credible sources of election information.

Bibliography

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"Dominion Secure.” Dominion Voting, www.dominionvoting.com/dominion-secure. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

"Dominion Voting Systems." PBS, www.pbs.org/newshour/tag/dominion-voting-systems. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

“Dominion Voting Systems Sues Guiliani for $1.3 Billion over Election-Fraud Claims.” Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2021, www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-25/dominion-voting-sues-giuliani-bogus-election-fraud-claims. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

“Fact Check: Dominion Is Not Linked to Antifa or Venezuela, Did Not Switch U.S. 2020 Election Votes in Virginia, and Was Not Subject to a U.S. Army Raid in Germany.” Reuters, 14 Dec. 2020, www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-dominion/fact-check-dominion-is-not-linked-to-antifa-or-venezuela-did-not-switch-u-s-2020-election-votes-in-virginia-and-was-not-subject-to-a-u-s-army-raid-in-germany-idUSKBN2861TB. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

Giles, Christopher. “US Election 2020: Is Trump Right about Dominion Machines?” BBC, 17 Nov. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54959962. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

Poulos, John. "Dominion's C.E.O.: We Settled the Lawsuit against Fox News, but We're Not Done Yet." The New York Times, 21 Apr. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/opinion/dominion-ceo-fox-lawsuit.html. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

Poulos, John. “Fake Claims about Dominion Voting Systems Do Real Damage.” Wall Street Journal, 30 Nov. 2020, www.wsj.com/articles/fake-claims-about-dominion-voting-systems-do-real-damage-11606755399. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

Satija, Neena. “What You Need to Know about Dominion, the Company That Trump and His Lawyers Baselessly Claim ‘Stole’ The Election.” The Washington Post, 20 Nov. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/20/dominion-voting-trump-faq. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

“Setting the Record Straight: Facts & Rumors.” Dominion Voting, www.dominionvoting.com/election2020-setting-the-record-straight. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.