Ever since the 2020 presidential election, controversy over the accuracy of Dominion voting machines has surged and now GOP members in Columbia County are sparring over the accuracy of the voting system.
Former President Donald Trump was the first to come out and question the accuracy of the machines. Conservatives as well as alt right media jumped on the bandwagon making allegations that the machines could be rigged.
Some news media outlets and vocal supporters of Trump even went as far as to say that the company is based out of Venezuela, a socialist country, or even that communist China owns the company outright. Both of those claims have been debunked.
In response, Dominion has filed lawsuits against Trump attorneys Rudy Guilliani and Sidney Powell, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and Fox News claiming defamation. The suit against Fox News is asking for $1.6 billion in damages.
“Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process,” according to the lawsuit filed earlier this month in Delaware. “If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does.”
Dominion has also put more conservative media outlets such as One America News and Newsmax on notice of possible pending litigation along with scores of private individuals.
Dominion was founded in 2003 and is based out of Denver, CO.
At the last meeting of the Columbia County Republican Party several people led by member Linda Parnell challenged the leadership about the accuracy of the machines.
Columbia County Republican Chair, Debbie McCord, says there is no evidence that the voting machines failed in either Columbia or Richmond County.
Dominion’s website claims:
“All Dominion systems are capable of producing paper records and are 100 percent auditable, with testing, reviews, audits, and recounts subject to oversight and verification by all political parties.”
McCord says the company’s claim of accuracy is true and she was there to watch the system in action.
“I was there at the audit and the hand recount,” McCord says. “Everything matched up when it came to the machines. Not only that, the machine count reflected what we predicted would happen in Columbia County.”
McCord says she knows Parnell and others have their reasons to be upset, but they are directing their ire in the wrong direction.
According to McCord, the machines work just fine and that the problems happened with the absentee and mail in ballots.
“The mail in and absentee ballots did not match our projections. There were more Democratic votes than we expected,” she says. “When people are getting multiple ballots in the mail, then there is obviously a problem.”
The Columbia County GOP is now focused on the 2022 election and McCord says they can’t afford to lose momentum. She says that she wishes that Dominion would provide for a forensic audit of their machines to prove they work to calm people down.
McCord says she is more concerned with getting out the Republican’s message in Columbia County and says that she believes the new voter reform law will curb most of the ability people may have to commit voter fraud.
“I don’t think the law goes far enough, but I think it is a good law,” McCord says. “For me, I am focused on getting our message out and supporting our candidates.”
Parnell could not be reached for comment.
Scott Hudson is the Editorial Page Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
