By: Devika Kandelwal
November 13 2020
The Dominion software was used in only two of the five counties that had problems in Michigan and Georgia. Those issues were not related to software.
The Dominion software was used in only two of the five counties that had problems in Michigan and Georgia. Those issues were not related to software.Since Election Day, President Donald Trump and his close aides have repeatedly made false claims about widespread voter fraud. On November 12, Trump claimed that Dominion Voting Systems, which make software that local governments around the nation use to help run their elections, faced software glitches that deleted 2.7 million votes for President Trump. This is not true. The rumor around the claim started from the conservative television network One America News Network, which promoted a theory posted to a pro-Trump blog that claimed that millions of votes were switched or deleted in Biden’s favor, reported Buzzfeed. The source of their claim was an error in Antrim County, Michigan, where the authorities announced on Facebook on November 4. that the software was not updated properly, it was later fixed, and the ballots were recounted. The incident was brought up later by Laura Cox, chair of the Michigan Republican Party, at a press conference on November 6, where she falsely claimed that other machines made by Dominion made the same error. Subsequently, Trump tweeted this false assertion and tagged Chanel Rion in the tweet. Rion is "an OANN writer who appears to now be sourcing some of her claims from Ron Watkins, the former administrator of 8chan, a website frequented by white supremacists", reported Buzzfeed. New York Times reported that the Dominion software was only used in two of the five counties that faced problems in Michigan and Georgia. For each of those issues, a detailed explanation was provided that had nothing to do with software issues. In the two Michigan counties that had mistakes, the inaccuracies were because of human errors, according to the Michigan Department of State. Only one of the two Michigan counties used Dominion software. In Georgia, three counties faced issues. In one county, a problem with the Dominion software delayed officials’ reporting of the vote tallies, but it did not affect the actual vote count. In two other counties, a separate company’s software slowed poll workers’ ability to check-in voters. Furthermore, Dominion Voting Systems said in a statement that it "categorically denies any claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems. Dominion systems continue to reliably and accurately count ballots, and state and local election authorities have publicly confirmed the integrity of the process. Edison Research has also categorically denied any claims that their data suggests any voting irregularities, including vote switching." There have been only a “small handful” of issues resulting from human error involving voting technology, not the software itself, said Eddie Perez, a voting technology expert at the OSET Institute, a nonpartisan election technology research and development nonprofit. Dominion is one of the largest voting technology providers in the U.S., with more than 30 states using its software. Any claims of voter fraud related to the company have been debunked.