How The Sale Of A Voting Machine Company Could Affect 2026 Midterm Elections

Summary

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Episode Overview

Episode Title: How The Sale Of A Voting Machine Company Could Affect 2026 Midterm Elections
Podcast: The NPR Politics Podcast
Date: October 20, 2025
Hosts/Reporters: Deepa Shivaram, Miles Parks
Guest: Benta Berkland (Colorado Public Radio)
Main Theme:
An in-depth look at the recent sale of Dominion Voting Systems (now "Liberty Vote")—a company at the center of election integrity debates—and how this change, including the messaging and ownership, might impact trust and the conduct of the 2026 midterm elections.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Controversial Legacy of Dominion Voting Systems

• Dominion was at the heart of 2020 election conspiracy theories: After Donald Trump's loss, various false claims circulated—such as Dominion’s supposed connections to Venezuela or software "switching" votes from GOP to Democrats. None were proven true.
  • “There were any number of conspiracy theories... The bottom line is that the various conspiracy theories around this company after 2020, none of them were ever proven true.” – Miles Parks [01:44]
• Impact of conspiracy theories: Defamation lawsuits resulted in massive settlements: $787 million from Fox News, $67 million from Newsmax.
• Now rebranded as Liberty Vote, Dominion has a new owner—Scott Leyendecker, a Republican and former election official.
• The sale and rebrand were announced in a press release using politicized language:
  • Press release quote: “As of today, Dominion is gone… we are turning the page and beginning the vital work of restoring faith in American elections.”
  • Local election clerks discovered the sale via media reports, contributing to mistrust and confusion.

Communication Divide: Public vs. Clerks

• Mixed messaging:
  • Public narrative: Dramatic break from the past, aimed at “restoring faith”—often appealing to those skeptical of elections.
  • Internal messaging: “Same team, same support, new name” – attempting to reassure clerks that nothing substantial is changing.
• Clerks felt blindsided:
  • Many were not informed beforehand, leading to concern and confusion at a local level.
  • Benta Berkland reports clerks wanting facts, not panic:
    • “To them, kind of blindsided by this sale and wonder what's going on. They had a lot of questions.” – Benta Berkland [03:19]

Who is the New Owner?

• Scott Leyendecker:
  • Republican, former St. Louis election official.
  • Entrepreneur behind Know, Inc.—the leading vendor for voter check-in technologies.
  • Did not provide comment to NPR for the episode.
  • His background and the press release wording sparked skepticism and some new conspiracy theories, especially from left-leaning circles.

What’s Actually Changed?

• Mostly branding; little operational impact:
  • Existing contracts (multi-year) remain in place; laws and audits remain unchanged.
  • Election officials, like Molly Fitzpatrick (Boulder County, CO), stress that audits and security protocols persist:
    • “It would take multiple bad actors working together and breaking multiple security protocols and multiple laws in order to do something nefarious... That has not changed.” – Molly Fitzpatrick [06:14]
• Main concern: Perceived rather than real change driving misinformation.
• Clerks' attitude: Wait, watch, and if the new ownership threatens reliability, consider switching vendors in the future.

Oversight, Transparency, & Audits

• Private companies like Liberty Vote are central to election infrastructure.
• Election security experts urge “radical transparency.”
  • “Radical transparency is really required in the world of elections. Anything less is doing a disservice.” – Doug Jones, retired computer science professor [10:24]
  • Elections should be auditable regardless of vendor: “If we're doing elections right, the devil himself could make the voting systems and we could still hold naught.” (citing Stanford’s David Dill)
• Paper ballots and robust post-election audits remain the backbone of trust in election results.
• Healthy skepticism versus destructive suspicion:
  • “A little bit of skepticism, healthy skepticism, as long as you're willing to then look at the audits and say, okay, no, this was proven true.” – Miles Parks [10:55]
  • Over-skepticism breeds conspiracy and misinformation.

Misinformation and Political Dynamics

• Conspiracies remain more common on the right, but left-wing fears rising:
  • “We have not seen election conspiracy theories take off to the same degree on the left so far as on the right… A big reason for that is candidates and people with big megaphones on the left have not really echoed them...” – Miles Parks [11:35]
• Clerks are hearing concerns from liberal voters worried about a 'GOP takeover' of elections.
  • “That's probably one of the biggest questions I've overall gotten—is are we going to continue to have elections?” – Voter question relayed by Tiffany Lee, La Plata County Clerk [12:47]
• Clerks see the rebrand as a profit-motivated decision rather than a political plot:
  • “This is just business for Scott Leyendecker… he is hoping that by rebranding it… will help him be able to sell it to conservative jurisdictions...” – Miles Parks [13:03]
  • Audits and transparency are reassuring clerks that underlying security remains.

Colorado’s Unique Position

• Colorado is a leader in election audits and transparency—but also an epicenter for election disinformation:
  • Dominion was headquartered in Denver, a fact seized upon by conspiracy theorists.
  • Despite robust audits, heightened mistrust persists—and even triggered violence:
    • Incident in July: Attempted firebombing of a county elections office targeting Dominion machines.
    • “It destroyed the office. So… just shows that this is still on the minds of a lot of people.” – Benta Berkland [14:16]
• Ongoing vigilance required, especially with 2026 midterms approaching.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The bottom line is that the various conspiracy theories around this company after 2020, none of them were ever proven true.” – Miles Parks [01:44]
• “You kind of have two different stories being told. One to the public… and then another story being told to the clerks, which is basically like, don't freak out. Nothing's actually changing.” – Miles Parks [03:40]
• “It would take multiple bad actors working together and breaking multiple security protocols and multiple laws in order to do something nefarious… That has not changed.” – Molly Fitzpatrick, Boulder County Clerk [06:14]
• “Radical transparency is really required in the world of elections. Anything less is doing a disservice.” – Doug Jones [10:24]
• “If we're doing elections right, the devil himself could make the voting systems and we could still hold naught.” – Miles Parks, quoting David Dill [10:39]
• “The clerks I've talked to are very concerned that this sale doesn't lead to any disinformation on the left.” – Benta Berkland [12:26]
• “This is just business for Scott Leyendecker… And I guess that, I mean, that is less scary if there are audits… as opposed to a real change in the core of the company's values.” – Miles Parks [13:03]
• “Even in July of this year, there was a man… arrested for firebombing the county clerk's office. He targeted the room where the Dominion voting machines were stored.” – Benta Berkland [14:16]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:44] – Recap of 2020 Dominion conspiracy theories, defamation settlements
• [03:19] – Clerks’ reaction to the rebrand and sale
• [04:34] – Background on Scott Leyendecker, the new owner
• [05:21] – What, if anything, actually changes for voters and election clerks
• [06:14] – Boulder County Clerk on maintaining security and transparency
• [10:24] – Doug Jones on the necessity of radical transparency
• [11:35] – Discussion of partisan conspiracy theories and narrative drivers
• [12:47] – Clerks fielding new fears from liberal voters about the sale
• [14:16] – Colorado’s unique challenges and recent arson incident targeting voting machines

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Summary Takeaways

• The sale of Dominion (now Liberty Vote) stokes latent anxieties on both sides of the political aisle—but has little practical impact on security or voting processes for the 2026 midterms.
• Robust audits, existing contracts, and election transparency are vital bulwarks against both mistrust and misinformation.
• The main risk is not operational change, but the perception of change fueling new conspiracy theories.
• Ongoing, nonpartisan oversight and communication are crucial to maintaining public trust as polarized narratives continue to swirl around the machinery of American democracy.

Transcript

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[Monica (Whimsy)]

Hi, my name is Monica, or Whimsy as I'm known on the trail. I'm calling from Yellowstone national park where I've just passed the 1,000 mile mark out of 3,000 miles of my hike from Canada to Mexico on the Continental Divide Trail. This podcast was recorded at 1:05pm on.

[Deepa Shivaram]

Monday, October 20, 2025.

[Monica (Whimsy)]

Things may have changed by the time you hear this, but I'll still be making my way through this vast wilderness, relying on NPR to keep me up to date on the outside world. Okay, here's the show.

[Miles Parks]

I'm hoping she has a map as well in addition to npr.

[Deepa Shivaram]

Yeah, I mean, look, can we guide people through the Continental Divide? Probably. What can NPR not do?

[Miles Parks]

I wouldn't want to promise that map too. Map Almanac would be good.

[Deepa Shivaram]

Good, good connection. Lots of water, snacks, trail snacks, obviously. Hey there. It's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Deepa Shivaram. I cover the White House.

[Miles Parks]

I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting.

[Deepa Shivaram]

And Colorado Public Radio's Benta Berkland is here with us today. Hi, Benta.

[Monica (Whimsy)]

Hey.

[Benta Berkland]

Thanks for having me.

[Deepa Shivaram]

Of course. So today on the show we are talking about the transformation of Dominion Voting Systems. That's a company that provides ballot counting machines and was at the center of some election related conspiracy conspiracy theories in 2020. The company was recently sold and has been renamed Liberty Vote. So we're going to start just with that. Miles, remind us what this controversy was surrounding Dominion in 2020.

[Miles Parks]

Yeah, I feel like most people, if they've heard of a election voting system company at all, they've probably heard of Dominion. There were any number of conspiracy theories following Donald Trump's loss in 2020 that said everything from the company was somehow involved in Venezuela and Hugo Chavez, that the software in it was switch from Republicans to Democrats. The bottom line is that the various conspiracy theories around this company after 2020, none of them were ever proven true. To the point that in the last couple years we've seen some massive defamation lawsuit settlements that have kind of proved that point. Fox News settled with the company for almost $800 million. Newsmax also settled with the company for $67 million. So the amount of money that was changing hands here related to these defamation suits kind of point points to the consequences that come from spreading election lies because of how much money has changed hands as a result of those lies, too? And this guy, Scott Leyendecker, who bought Dominion Voting Systems, has rebranded it now as Liberty Vote. He announced it with an open letter on the website and a press release that used some very. Some would call it partisan language that seemed geared specifically at people who have doubts about elections. You know, the first line of the press release said, as of today, Dominion is gone. Leyendecker wrote, we are turning the page and beginning the vital work of restoring faith in American elections. Kind of alluding to the idea that there is not already faith or that there's some. Some issue here. And so a lot of people were very concerned about that. Some clerks were not in the loop on this sale, that many of the clerks who use this voting equipment in their counties found out about it from reading it in the media.

[Benta Berkland]

That also led to some consternation because they're seeing this partisan appearing press release, and counties are vendors of these machines. So they work with these companies a lot. You know, they do updates. They come out and check the equipment. To them kind of blindsided by this sale and wonder what's going on. They had a lot of questions, and.

[Miles Parks]

I was kind of taken aback, honestly, by how the company has communicated with the clerks themselves now that the sale has become public, because I think that's going to be part of this story as we see how the election denial community takes in this sale. You know, he put out this press release that indicated that there was some sort of transformation coming for this company. But then I just want to read you. We got ahold of an email that company reps sent to clerks in Georgia that said, feel assured that Liberty Vote shares the same values as Dominion. Same team, same support, new name. And so you kind of have two different stories being told. One to the public that Dominion is gone and that there's some big transformation here, and then another story being told to the clerks, which is basically like, don't freak out. Nothing's actually changing. And so I think. I don't know. I just. It's gonna be really interesting to see how both those stories play to their separate audiences.

[Deepa Shivaram]

Okay, so the guy who bought Dominion Voting, what is his story? I mean, why did he make this purchase? What's the thing behind the press release?

[Miles Parks]

You know, it's interesting. He's a Republican, former election official, actually, from St. Louis, Missouri, who, after he was an election official, he started a company called Know, Inc. That has now become the largest vendor of voter check in technology. You know, a lot of people might be familiar when you go to your polling place and they check you in now on, in many places on a tablet that can do a lot of the records keeping that was previously done on paper. He started that company, it's become very successful and now is buying into vote tabulation equipment. I should also note that, you know, we reached out for comment as part of this story and he didn't get back to us. But the mixture of the fact that this press release had this language and then the fact that he was previously a Republican I think has already started. You can see the beginnings of some left leaning conspiracy theorizing about this sale.

[Deepa Shivaram]

So what actually has changed here? Is it just the name or is it more than that?

[Benta Berkland]

Practically not a lot really has changed. So for states like Colorado, and I think more than half the states use Dominion voting systems, have contracts with Dominion. Those contracts are multi year. So those contracts will still be in place for the midterm election. And the laws that states and counties use to run elections, those still exist. So I think on the ground we aren't going to see a lot of change. I did talk to a Democratic clerk about this out of Boulder, Colorado, Molly Fitzpatrick, and she said that's one thing she's really trying to let people know that the post election audits and the things that make sure the vote is accurate, that's going to keep happening as normal. And she thinks the biggest risk is that people think this sale is a bigger change than it actually is and she doesn't want people to spread disinformation about it.

[Molly Fitzpatrick]

So that's one of the things that I'm just trying to really communicate to people is that our system is still secure, we are still in control of our system. It would take multiple bad actors working together and breaking multiple security protocols and multiple laws in order to do something nefarious on the system. That has not changed.

[Deepa Shivaram]

I mean, for both of you as people who cover voting, does this strike you as very odd?

[Miles Parks]

Oh, I mean it was shocking, right? I mean Benta, when I read the press release, I had never really seen anything like it. And I mean I think it seems like the clerks were also struck by that.

[Benta Berkland]

They were. I mean I think the word we used was he's capitalizing. It appears to be on this election denialism. But clerks in Colorado have spoken on the phone with them in some cases multiple times. The CEO has talked to them privately. They feel very assured that he has this long track record in election administration in St. Louis. So we'll just have to wait and see. One clerk said, look, our contract is not up for a few years and I want to see how things evolve. And if we have to switch vendors, we'll switch vendors.

[Deepa Shivaram]

All right, we're going to take a quick break here and we'll be back in a moment.

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[Deepa Shivaram]

And we're back and we've been talking about the recent sale of Dominion Voting, which is now rebranded as Liberty Vote. And Miles, I mean, with private companies like Liberty Vote, I mean, they're playing a major role in elections here. What kind of oversight or transparency exists when it comes to local contracts that Liberty Vote would have?

[Miles Parks]

Well, this is really interesting because I do think we have to zoom out for a second and I always like to remember not every everyone is thinking about elections every moment of every single day. And like when I know, right.

[Benta Berkland]

Come on, Miles.

[Miles Parks]

But I know me and Benta are but when we're talking about election technology and Dominion and them counting votes, they are counting in more than 98% of the country votes on paper Ballots that then in these jurisdictions in Colorado and Georgia, they're using tabulators to then count the paper ballots. But when I talk to election security experts, what they say is like, skepticism of these sort of companies that are helping out with equipment is actually pretty natural part of democracy. And if you have really good audits in place to be able to double check the technology, then you can kind of get the benefits. You know, research has found that vote tabulators, electronic vote tabulators, are much faster and much more accurate than just doing it with human beings. But then on the back end, after you've done that, for unofficial results, to be able to get those results out quickly, if you can count them by hand with people, then you can confirm their accuracy and make sure they weren't doing the things that they were accused of doing. You know, stealing votes or switching things. I was talking to an expert, Doug Jones, who's a retired computer science professor at the University of Iowa, and here's how he put it.

[Doug Jones]

Radical transparency is really required in the world of elections. Anything less is doing a disservice. So that radical transparency means that the ownership of the company should not matter.

[Miles Parks]

He quoted another professor, Stanford Professor David Dill, who said that if we're doing elections right, the devil himself could make the voting systems and we could still hold naught. You know, just that one, like, struck with struck me a lot.

[Deepa Shivaram]

That's so incredible, that concept that we should question things.

[Miles Parks]

Exactly. Like a little bit of skepticism, healthy skepticism, as long as you're willing to then look at the audits and say, okay, no, this was proven true.

[Deepa Shivaram]

Wow, that is so fascinating, though, because at the same time, we have to have this conversation about over skepticism. Right. And how that leads to conspiracy theories and misinformation.

[Benta Berkland]

I think this political climate we're in makes healthy skepticism even more challenging, because if people do have legitimate questions, it's kind of like branded as a conspiracy.

[Deepa Shivaram]

Yeah, that's tough. I'm curious, though, for both of you. I mean, as we head into 2026, midterm elections are coming up. Are there current conspiracy theories that are growing right now about these voting systems, or what are people saying that they might expect for the next election?

[Miles Parks]

One thing I will note is that there's a lot of worry as the press release went out, and, you know, he's a Republican who bought this company. Is this a GOP takeover of this elections company or something like that? We have not seen election conspiracy theories take off to the same degree on the left so far as on the right. And a big reason for that is candidates and people with big megaphones on the left have not really echoed them in the same way. So we'll see them pop up. I'll see them on my Twitter feed every once in a while. But we haven't seen them kind of mainstreamed in the same way they have on the right because of people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk parroting them and things like that. So I think that's going to be the biggest thing to watch in 2026 is seeing whether candidates themselves kind of pick up on some of this stuff to try to explain away their losses.

[Deepa Shivaram]

So, Benja, are there concerns that the sale of Dominion Voting is increasing mistrust among more liberal voters?

[Benta Berkland]

The clerks I've talked to are very concerned that this sale doesn't lead to any disinformation on the left. And I spoke with the clerk, Tiffany Lee, and she's from La Plata county, which is in the southwestern corner of Colorado, and she said she's already started hearing from voters in her area who are liberal, very worried about what the sale of Dominion could mean.

[Molly Fitzpatrick]

Yes. Is this a, you know, GOP with the word they take over? Are elections going away? What's happening? You know, that's the probably the one of the biggest questions I've overall gotten is are we going to continue to have elections?

[Deepa Shivaram]

That's powerful to hear someone say that. Yeah.

[Miles Parks]

Yeah. I mean, another thing I've heard that I think is pretty interesting is like remembering that, like, this is a for profit company and if you are buying a for profit company like Dominion, you know, what choice do you have if this company's been surrounded by all of this controversy and these doubts? You know, one state voting official told me that basically this is just business for Scott Leyendecker and that he is hoping that by rebranding it kind of with the election skeptics in mind will help him be able to sell it to conservative jurisdictions over the next few years. And so I think in that way it's not as scary as much as just like, oh, he's just trying to make money. He's just trying to make money. Right. And I guess that, I mean, that is less scary if there are audits that confirm the results still. And like, if it is just a business tactic, I think that, oddly enough, has made some clerks feel better that it seems to be just a marketing tactic as opposed to a real change in the core of the company's values.

[Deepa Shivaram]

That's fascinating. Well, Benta, I mean, Colorado. There's sort of a twofold situation going on here because Colorado is known for particularly strong audits in their elections, which is something that, you know, helps increase transparency and things like that. But at the same time, it's also a state that's one of the epicenters of election disinformation. How do you square that?

[Benta Berkland]

Yeah, I mean, I think one of the reasons Colorado became an epicenter of so much election mis and disinformation is because Dominion Voting Systems was headquartered in Denver, and Liberty Vote will also maintain its offices in Denver and its staffing levels in Denver. So that kind of brought us into the whole situation because Colorado is a blue state, not a swing state like Georgia. But it has been this ongoing challenge for election officials from across the political spectrum to continually push back against these false claims. I don't think there's any one thing that's going to gain everyone's trust. I think, you know, as Miles pointed out, checking the paper ballot, vote against the machine tally, having those really robust audits showing that it's accurate is a huge thing. But. But we've seen these levels of distrust persist. And to that point, even in July of this year, there was a man in southwest Colorado. He was arrested for firebombing the county clerk's office. He targeted the room where the Dominion voting machines were stored. He'd publicly spoken out in meetings about not trusting Dominion, Dominion rigging the election. And he allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail in this voting machine room, and the machines were on fire and it destroyed the office. So, you know, just a random time in July just shows that this is still on the minds of a lot of people. And I think we can expect it to only continually ramp up as we head into the midterm election cycle. Wow.

[Deepa Shivaram]

All right, we're going to leave it there for today. Thank you, Becha, for joining us.

[Benta Berkland]

Thanks so much for having me.

[Deepa Shivaram]

I'm Deepa Shivaram. I cover the White House.

[Miles Parks]

I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting.

[Deepa Shivaram]

And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics podcast.

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