Dominion Voting Systems, one of the largest manufacturers of election machines that were at the center of multiple false accusations and conspiracy theories after the 2020 election, has been sold to Liberty Vote, a new group run by a former local election director.
Liberty Vote announced the acquisition in a brief news release that proclaimed the mission of the new company would be “to restore public confidence in the electoral process.” It featured language favored by conservatives, professing to “improve election integrity in America” and “leveraging hand-marked paper ballots enabling compliance with President Trump’s executive order,” a reference to the president’s effort in March to overhaul electoral processes that has been largely blocked by courts.
The founder of Liberty Vote, Scott Leiendecker, is a former Republican election official from St. Louis with years of experience in elections. He also is the chief executive officer of KNOWiNK, a company that produces electronic poll books, digital devices that are used across the country to help election workers upload and maintain voter rolls at voting sites. In July, KNOWiNK announced that its Poll Pad “was the first electronic poll book to earn certification from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.”
There is little public information regarding Liberty Vote. An organization titled Liberty Election Solutions Corp. was incorporated in Delaware in August, according to corporate filings. The group changed its name to Liberty Vote Corp. in late September. A trademark application for Liberty Vote Corp., was filed on Wednesday. None of the applications mention Mr. Leiendecker.
The news release announcing the sale offered no details of the sale price, and a spokesman for Liberty Vote said Mr. Leiendecker is the sole owner of the company and privately financed the purchase. The value of Dominion, a privately-held company, has been intensely debated. In 2018, Staple Street Capital, a private equity firm, purchased a controlling stake in Dominion and valued the company at $80 million.
Dominion Voting Systems confirmed the sale.
Dominion had been the focus of conspiracies that the 2020 election was stolen, as Mr. Trump and his supporters spread the false claim that the company’s machines were used to give Joseph R. Biden Jr. credit for votes that were actually cast for Mr. Trump.
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The post Dominion, Company at Center of False 2020 Voting Conspiracies, Is Sold appeared first on New York Times.
