A former Republican operative just gained control of America's second-largest voting machine company. Scott Leiendecker's acquisition of Dominion Voting Systems - now rebranded as Liberty Vote - puts him in charge of election equipment used across 27 states, including all of Georgia. The deal has election experts worried about the concentration of voting infrastructure under partisan control, especially given the ongoing political battles over election integrity and Dominion's history with conspiracy theories.
The voting machine industry just got a major shakeup that has election integrity advocates scratching their heads. Scott Leiendecker, a former GOP operative from Missouri, completed his acquisition of Dominion Voting Systems last week, immediately rebranding the controversial company as Liberty Vote in what he calls "a bold and historic move to transform and improve election integrity in America."
The deal gives Leiendecker unprecedented control over American election infrastructure. His newly acquired company operates voting systems in 27 states, while his existing firm Knowink provides electronic poll books in 29 states. The overlap is staggering - 14 states covering 20 million registered voters use both systems, giving Leiendecker's companies end-to-end control of the voting process from voter check-in to ballot tabulation. Georgia, a critical swing state, uses both systems statewide.
"There isn't time between now and 2026 to design, test, and certify new voting equipment," Philip Stark, UC Berkeley statistics professor and election integrity advocate, told WIRED. His skepticism reflects broader concerns about Leiendecker's ambitious promises to conduct "third-party, top-to-bottom" security audits and potentially rewrite code developed by foreign programmers.
Dominion has relied on software developers in Belgrade, Serbia and Canada for two decades - a practice that became politically toxic after false claims about foreign interference in the 2020 election. Leiendecker promises "100 percent domestic staffing and software development," but experts question whether rewriting hundreds of thousands of lines of code is realistic before critical elections.
The acquisition required resolving Dominion's remaining defamation battles. The company had sued conspiracy theorists and media outlets for $1.6 billion after false claims about election rigging. While Fox News settled for $787.5 million in 2023, Leiendecker's purchase was contingent on settling remaining cases with figures like Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani for undisclosed terms.
