FACT CHECK: Viral Post Claims A Dominion Voting System Machine Was Hacked On Live TV

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

A viral Facebook post claims a Dominion Voting Systems machine was hacked on live television last week.

Verdict: False

There was not a Dominion Voting Systems hack during a recent Georgia Senate subcommittee hearing, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office and Dominion Voting Systems. The device in question was a poll pad from KnowInk, an election technology vendor that also refuted claims its equipment was hacked.

Fact Check:

The election technology firm Dominion Voting Systems has been the target of several baseless allegations of election fraud since the November elections, the Washington Post reported.

Now, a viral Facebook post claims Dominion Voting Systems was hacked on live TV on Dec. 30. The Facebook user linked in the comments section to an article about CueCat inventor Jovan Pulitzer claiming he accessed Dominion’s system by hacking a poll pad during a Georgia Senate subcommittee hearing held that same day. Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Greene further spread the claim on Twitter, remarking, “Well would you look at that! @JovanHPulitzer was able to hack into Dominion machines because they are connected to the internet. @GaSecofState our #Georgia elections are not safe!”

However, no Dominion Voting Systems machine was hacked during the hearing, according to both the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office and Dominion Voting Systems. (RELATED: Does Brad Raffensperger Have A Brother Who Works For Huawei?)

“In his presentation, Hutton Pulitzer, formerly J. Jovan Philylaw, claimed without providing any evidence that he had ‘hacked’ a poll pad,” reads a statement from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. “He then went on to claim that meant that the entire voting system was compromised even though the poll pad, like the poll books which they have replaced, are never connected to the rest of the voting system.”

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office statement goes on to explain that poll pads, which are different from vote tabulators, are the “only piece of election infrastructure that is ever hooked up to the internet or connected to devices that are hooked up to the internet” so that election workers can “download updated voter lists to the poll pads that are used to check people in on Election Day.” WiFi capability is “disabled before the poll pads are put in to use at the polling place,” according to the statement.

Touch screens and printers at polling places are “never attached to the poll pads” and are “air-gapped so that they cannot be connected to the internet,” per the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office. Scanners also do not connect to any other equipment.

Dominion Voting Systems said on its website that “this is another deliberately inaccurate claim,” noting that the comments at the hearing “actually focused on PollPad electronic check-in devices.” The firm does not make poll pads, and poll pads do not connect to Dominion Voting Systems tabulators, according to its website.

As part of its election system, Georgia uses electronic poll books made by election technology vendor KnowInk. In a statement on its website, KnowInk likewise refuted allegations that its equipment was compromised by Pulitzer. (RELATED: Explaining The Viral Video Claiming To Show Election Fraud In Fulton County, Georgia)

“The assertions made about unauthorized access to our systems are patently false,” reads the company’s statement. “The man claiming that someone ‘got into’ our systems did not happen according to our forensic analysis. There was no ‘hack,’ there was no ‘back door’ entry, there was no ‘pump and dump,’ and there was no access through a ‘thermostat’ located hundreds of miles away in Savannah.”

In KnowInk’s Dec. 31 statement, the company further noted that its “our electronic poll books are not being used for voter check-ins during the early voting process currently underway in Georgia, and they won’t be used until next Tuesday on Election Day.”

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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