These are conspiracies manufactured out of whole cloth.. It was an assurance designed to bolster public confidence in the way America votes: Voting machines are not connected to the internet.. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. AT&T and Verizon and so on try and protect as best they can the security of their phone network from the rest of the internet, but its still part of the internet, Appel explained. . "The voting machine lobby, led by the biggest company, ES&S, believes they are above the law," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Intelligence Committee who co-signed the letter.. A sample ballot is shown via the Dominion Voting Systems that Georgians use to vote. In . The Trump followers believe that the explosion was actually a missile strike aimed at destroying. We rate thisclaim as FALSE, because it wasn't supported by our research. The question is.. Detailed voter instructions for the Infinity voting unit, How to Vote an Optical Scan Ballot with Unisyn Equipment, Public Records Policy and Records Request Form. The bomber was lateridentified by U.S. Attorney Don Cochranas Anthony Warner, 63, according to The Tennessean. Copyright 2023 Politifact. (Photo by James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images). For election systems to be online, even momentarily, presents a serious problem, according to Appel. Some of the posts (here) try connect the explosion to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama by claiming that William Kennard, Obamas EU ambassador and Clintons FCC chair, is on AT&Ts board and owns the Nashville AT&T building that was destroyed in the blast. The bomb was located in a recreational vehicle that Warner owned. Note that aspects of Tennessee law may differ with what is seen on the videos. AT&T not conducting voting machine audit near Nashville explosion site. By the time the news conference occurred on Nov. 19, Mr. Trump's campaign had already prepared an internal memo on many of the outlandish claims about the company, Dominion Voting Systems, and. Modems in voting machines are a bad idea, said Appel. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. The location of the heavily damaged buildings seen in the photograph accompanying the post appear to show 170 to 176 2nd Avenue North in Nashville after the explosion. . Speaker 13 . The machines America votes on seem to be capturing the interest of some in Congress. Spokespeople for both AT&T and Dominion have confirmed that AT&T did not hold a contract to audit Dominion, nor had any of Dominions equipment been moved to Nashville in preparation for such an audit. Since the 2016 election, Michigan authorized $82 million dollars to upgrade its election systems. The post, which has been shared almost 900 times, makes two claims: A building damaged in the Nashville explosion was holding Dominion Voting Systems machines set to be audited, and in New. Some of that money was spent on tabulators with wireless modems. "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", "Wait, the bombing in Nashville was at the AT&T data center right after they got the contract to audit the Dominion voting machines?,"onefrom Dec. 26 reads. "God is at the wheel, but we are the warriors that must do the work of men to repel evil," said one of numerous posts on the conservative social media site Parler. Dominion told AFP the claim is "another bizarre lie being spread by known conspiracy theorists.". Jake Rollow, director of communications for the Michigan Department of State, said in a statement to NBC News, Even though the results are unofficial, if these unofficial results were disrupted or manipulated, it could still cause confusion on Election Day., "The department will consider the advisory commissions recommendations to improve the security of the process," Rollow continued. The New York Attorney Generals office said they could not confirm nor deny any investigation. The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies. for the blast that rattled downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, social media users have invented their own far-fetched theories. Last week, Dominion filed its fourth defamation lawsuit, this one a $1.6 billion whopper charging that Fox News spread the bogus conspiracy claim in order to boost ratings that plummeted after. Rumors about an investigation into the company do not even appear in web searches until after the fire. Dominion provides election equipment and software to 28 states, including many of the swing states on which Trump has focused his post-election ire. In a Dominion-themed segment, an Infowars host speaking during a November Washington, D.C., rally presaged the January 6 violence by hyping the . Didi Martinez is an associate producer with the NBC News Investigative Unit. Some of the posts attempted to further link AT&T to Dominion by claiming a former owner of the AT&T building was a board member of a firm that owns Dominion. There is no evidence to support the claim that City Blue Imaging, a longtime Rochester, New York, printing business that went up in flames on Christmas Eve, was under investigation for printing fake ballots. So that unofficial election results can more quickly be relayed to the public. 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 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. 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.. Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. provides voting machines and tabulators. The post, which has been shared almost 900 times,makes two claims:A buildingdamaged in the Nashville explosion was holding Dominion Voting Systems machines set to be audited, and in New York, the company that burned was under investigation for printing and shipping fake ballots to Pennsylvania. It's just the latest example of how people's lives are being upended and potentially ruined by the unprecedented flurry of disinformation this year. Social media is home to several conspiracy theories about the explosion in Nashville on Christmas Day. All those. Its true that an AT&T-owned building in Nashville was one of many buildings damaged in Fridays bombing, causing widespread communications outages. 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, Wait, the bombing in Nashville was at the AT&T data center right after they got the contract to audit the Dominion voting machines? read another post. Please note the instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. "So, the explosion 'just happened . DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. Some posts have said the Nashville explosion was caused by a missile. Note that aspects of Tennessee law may differ with what is seen on the videos. Authorities still dont know the reason for the Christmas day bombing, but theres no evidence it was election related. "Bombing investigations can take years," Darrell DeBusk, an FBI spokesman based inTennessee, told The Tennessean. In 2020, the controversy revolves around Dominion's voting machines, sparked by an erroneous result out of a Michigan county that's been blamed on human error, allegations of rigged Dominion software in Georgia and the fact Texas rejected Dominion's system due to security concerns. Owens, the other co-founder of Staple Street Capital,did not work for Cerberus, despite the post's claim. The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has dismissed the claim of an election hacking and vote manipulation operation known as Hammer and Scorecard. (here). He also serves on 16 boards and commissions, on two of which he is the presiding member. he instructions and videos shown here have been prepared by the manufacturers and are general in nature. The Poynter Institute Menu. This is part of The Associated Press ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform. An executive at Dominion Voting Systems moved to dismiss Newsmax as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit Friday after reaching a settlement with the right-wing media organization. On January 8, it filed a defamation suit against pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, seeking $1.3 billion in damages. The bulletin circulated among state election officials earlier this week and publicly shared online, Friday marks the first time CISA has used its vulnerability disclosure program to probe . This references the claim that supercomputer Hammer and software program Scorecard were used to change votes in Bidens favor in the 2020 Presidential election. 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. A Dominion voting machine in Georgia. A widely sharedpost on Facebook alleges that four days before the bombing, a rumor circulated that AT&T was awarded a contract to audit Dominion's voting machines, which were supposedly being sent to Nashville. Dominion has been the target of a wide range of false posts since American voters chose Joe Biden as their next president, despite no evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities in the 2020 election. The post displays a headline from a fabricated story by the Genesius Times, a satirical news website, that reads: "BREAKING: Nashville Bomber died from COVID-19 shortly after blowing himself up. All of these businesses were reported to be damaged in the blast (here). However, the firm cited in that version of the claim Cerberus Capital Management doesnt own Dominion nor is it connected to Staple Street Capital, whichacquired Dominion in 2018. 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. 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. Early Christmas morning, police in Nashville came across an RV parked on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building, whileresponding to reports of shots fired in the area, Metro Nashville P, Fact check: Joe Biden legally won presidential election, despite persistent contrary claims, Neighbor recalls warning, countdown before Nashville explosion, Fact check: Viral photo shows fake logo and slogan for Dominion Voting Systems, Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems, Nashville officials resolved to find bombing suspects, learn motive behind explosion, "Nashville bombing: What we know about downtown explosion on Christmas morning, FBI Memphis Special Agent in Charge Announces Identity of Remains Discovered in Nashville Explosion Site; Multi-Agency Investigation Continues, FBI identifies suspect in Nashville bombing, AT&T outage Sunday updates: 'Progress continues' in restoring service after Nashville bombing, Dominion Voting Systems Acquired by its Management Team and Staple Street Capital. A spokesperson for Dominion Voting Systems confirmed to Reuters via email that the Stephen Owens at Staple Street has no family ties or business affiliations with Bidens sister, Valerie Biden Owens. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Theres a small percentage of jurisdictions in the country -- a lot of them are in Florida -- who have decided they want to modem unofficial results to the election office, he said. Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, which sells electronic voting hardware and software, is suing both Fox News Network and parent company Fox Corp. for defamation. More:Neighbor recalls warning, countdown before Nashville explosion. This material may not be reproduced without permission. Both sit on Dominion's board. But companies that specialize in the subject said it is getting exponentially worse. Social media users have been sharing content online that claims AT&T had a contract to do a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems machines and that the Dec. 25 explosion in Nashville, which damaged an AT&T building, was tied to this audit. More:Fact check: No, Joe Biden's brother-in-law does not own Dominion Voting Systems. The wishes are that I forever have to look over my shoulder," Coomer said. The social media post states "AT&T got contract [sic] to do forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and those machines were being moved to Nashville this past week" before the bombing. NBC News asked the two other major manufacturers how many of their tabulators with modems were currently in use. The voting rights of more than 55,000 formerly incarcerated Minnesotans were restored on Friday, as Gov. James Murphy, a spokesperson for MetLife, confirmed the company owns the building. Here are the facts: CLAIM: President-elect Joe Biden's sister is married to Stephen Owens, the co-founder of the private equity firm Staple Street Capital, which owns Dominion Voting Systems . (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.). There is no reason to suppose that it would be likely, or even possible, that these buildings, would be used to audit voting machines. 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. Examples can be seen here , here and here . ES&S confirmed they had sold scanners with wireless modems to at least 11 states. Jim Greer, a spokesperson for AT&T, told USA TODAY the claims are "not true. Early Christmas morning, police in Nashville came across an RV parked on Second Avenue, outside an AT&T transmission building, whileresponding to reports of shots fired in the area, Metro Nashville Police spokesperson Don Aaron told The Tennessean that day. More than a month ago, Eric Coomer went into hiding. However, both AT&T and Dominion have disclaimed the notion that the former company was engaged in audit of the latter, or that any Dominion-related systems were being moved to Nashville in preparation for a "forensic audit" (by anyone). Let's start here: The man behind the Dec. 25 bombing in downtown Nashville, Tenn., died of COVID-19, according to a popular and wrong Facebook post. Reuters Fact Check previously debunked this claim here . It's the first . "I'm in fear for my family's safety. ", More:Three firefighters hurt battling three-alarm blaze in Rochester. A Dominion spokeswoman said other company employees have also gone to more secure locations, been threatened and been digitally stalked. Videos from law enforcement officials and local businesses show that the explosion occurred on 2nd Avenue North in downtown Nashville. 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. There is no evidence that the New York printing company whose building burnt down on Christmas Day was under investigation for printing false ballots. The reason? CLAIM: AT&T got a contract to do a forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems machines and those machines were recently moved to Nashville, Tennessee to the same AT&T building that was damaged in a Christmas morning explosion. On Tuesday, Coomer sued the Trump campaign and a number of allies, alleging defamation. As people experience their own individual Internet bubbles, it can be hard to recognize just how much misinformation exists and how the current information ecosystem compares with previous years. the post reads. Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. The broadcast then began a 15-minute countdown,before the RV exploded, according to The Tennessean. 2023 www.statesman.com. 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. And we knew that wasn't true. Did City Blue Imaging Print Voting Ballots, Then Burn Down? We should not connect our voting machines directly to the computer networks. "Fuck a drag bill," they wrote in an Instagram post. And so we set out to try and find the voting machines to see if we could find them on the internet, and especially the back-end systems that voting machines in the precinct were connecting to to report their results.. The media intelligence platform Zignal Labs, in an analysis performed at NPR's request, found that misinformation narratives related to vote-by-mail systems alone were mentioned across the media spectrum more than 40 million times since Election Day. Did AT&T Have a Contract to Audit Dominion Voting Systems? 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. The post also mentions the Kraken or supercomputer and says that the cooling system for this computer was located in the AT&T building. Trump has repeatedly made comments about Dominion's voting machines and retweeted reports perpetuating the conspiracy theory, calling the company's voting machines "a disaster all over the . According to the post, that firm ownedthe AT&T building outside of which the Christmas bombing occurred. 4 min read. "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. 27postsays. On Monday, The Associated Press debunked claims that Dominion has any connection with AT&T. That agreement is long over, and they no longer have the . While federal investigators are still looking into the bombing, law enforcement officials have said Warner was responsible and died in the blast. In addition to Coomer's lawsuit, Dominion is threatening legal action against Sidney Powell, who has been among the loudest voices pushing conspiracy theories on behalf of the Trump campaign. "What we should do is remove all of the unnecessary, hackable pathways, such as modems. No amount of transparency at the county and state level can really combat the sort of megaphone that Trump wields, Kiniry says. City Blue Imaging Services' Facebook, Dec. 27. Their evidence: a grainy black-and-white video. 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. In an all-caps tweet on Saturday night, Trump highlighted a report from One America News Network (OANN), a right-wing outlet, that claimed voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems. the dominion voting system that was the subject of an enormous amount of controversy, is a dramatic improvement over prior forms of voting. David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994 as a creative outgrowth of his wide-ranging interests in a variety of subjects (particularly folklo read more. In February, Dominion filed a lawsuit against Lindell and his company, alleging he defamed them by repeatedly claiming to have evidence their voting machines fraudulently flipped votes. Dominion Voting Systems previously sent OAN letters threatening to sue, accusing the network of spreading the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that the election-technology company manipulated. The conspiracy theory appears to have originated in a tweet by Lin Wood, an attorney and Trump supporter, who has pushed a number of false election claims. This screengrab is being shared on social media without that context. "You may want to read a book some day to learn about my reference to rising like a #phoenix. Spokespeople for both AT&T and Dominion have confirmed that AT&T did not hold a contract to audit Dominion, nor had any of Dominions equipment been moved to Nashville in preparation for such an audit. DNA found at the scene matched Warner's, according to an FBI press release. It wasn't meant to kill people, but to destroy a building. He has independently become part of the broader Dominion conspiracy theories, though, with some claiming he's Joe Biden's brother-in-law. There is no evidence that suggests that the explosion was election-related. Secretary Hargett is the chief executive officer of the Department of State with oversight of more than 300 employees. Even in an election where almost all the voting was recorded on paper ballots and rigorous audits were done more than ever before, none of that helps if millions of people are working with an alternative set of facts, said Joe Kiniry, chief scientist of the open-source election technology company Free & Fair. https://archive.is/qqjBh Paul E. Singer-Elliott Management, aka "The Vulture", reportedly controls CNN parent, AT&T, as well as Twitter. "The loud speaker was to warn people that the bomb was going to go off.. 5:30a on Christmas morning was picked to ensure that nobody was around.. Shasta County has become a hotbed for unproven conspiracy theories about rigged voting, fueled by former . But election integrity advocates worry the disinformation won't truly begin to recede until political leaders such as Trump stop questioning the election's legitimacy. Dominion Voting Systems, a company beset by dubious election fraud claims in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, said "human error" was to blame after machines in a Pennsylvania. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. He also serves on the boards of Ford Motor Company, MetLife and Duke Energy Corporation (here). At its core is the prediction thatan alleged mass arrest ofhigh-profile Democrats and celebritieswould be carried out while now-former President Donald Trump secretly savedthe world from a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals. Thats an interesting coincidence.. Our mission is to exceed the expectations of our customers, the taxpayers, by operating at the highest levels of accuracy, cost-effectiveness, and accountability in a customer-centered environment. The voting conspiracy theories that have led millions of Republicans to feel as though the election was stolen from them, which are still spreading, have also led to calls for Coomer's head. This conspiracy theory has been debunked by various experts as reported by Reuters here and other fact checkers including Snopes, Factcheck.org and PolitiFact here , here and here . A spokesperson for the FBI's Denver Field Office confirmed that the FBI executed the . No available external evidence suggests AT&T was involved in any such audit, either. CNN didnt report that Anthony Warner, the person authorities have identified as the bomber, died from COVID-19. Even if an election is run perfectly, it doesn't matter to a sizable portion of the public who believes it was unfair. Posted By: Dreadnought, 2/28/2023 9:52:47 PM Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News highlights former House Speaker Paul Ryan's alleged influence over Fox News Channel's (FNC) editorial control, reportedly urging . Some just say AT&T had a contract to conduct a forensic audit on Dominion Voting Systems. Some have also received threatening letters. The electronic voting system company accused the television network of spreading lies that Dominion machines were used to rig the 2020 election against Donald Trump. The investigation of the Nashville bombing is ongoing, but the Facebook post is inaccurate and ridiculous.
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