Dominion Voting Not Connected to Hugo Chavez
The Claim
Dominion Voting Systems was created at the direction of Hugo Chavez and thus is part of a conspiracy to create a socialist America.
News posted on
Emerging story
In November 2020, Trump’s attorney Sidney Powell said that: “The Dominion Voting Systems, the Smartmatic technology software, and the software that goes in other computerized voting systems here as well, not just Dominion, were created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chavez to make sure he never lost an election after one constitutional referendum came out the way he did not want it to come out.”
Throughout November and December 2020, the claim was viral on social media.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found that the claim is false. Since 2018, Dominion has been majority owned by Staple Street Capital, based in New York. Its CEO John Polous wrote that no investor, including the Venezuelan government or anyone linked to Hugo Chavez, has more than a 5% stake in the company. Further, Dominion was founded in Canada, not Venezuela.
While two of Smartmatic’s founders are from Venezuela, the company is not Venezuelan. Further, Dominion has no connection to Smartmatic.
Hugo Chavez died in 2013, so it seems unlikely that he would have an impact on the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The claim seems based on Lin Wood’s recently released “the kraken,” which we have previously discussed at Misbar. In the document, an anonymous former Venezuelan military official alleges that he saw Chavez using a rigged Smartmatic machine years back.
However, “the kraken” has been largely debunked, and again, Dominion and Smartmatic are not connected. We rate this claim as false.
