'It's all a ruse': Panic as election tech buyout triggers fear of 'MAGA takeover'

The new owner of Dominion Voting Systems raised concerns with a MAGA-friendly announcement of his purchase, but election experts have been reassured by his moves so far, according to experts.

Scott Leiendecker, a former Republican election official from St. Louis, purchased the election tech company last month and renamed it Liberty Vote, but he insisted in an interview with CNN that he is "absolutely not an election denier" and disavowed President Donald Trump's claims about the 2020 election.

“I’m an election person," he told CNN. "I’m not on anybody’s side or anybody’s team. I’m on the American people’s side. I’m on democracy’s side. I want to make sure everybody knows I’m not siding with the left or the right. That’s important to me. That’s important to the process.”

Trump and his allies repeatedly made false claims that Dominion software flipped millions of votes away from him and over to Joe Biden in 2020, and Fox News famously settled with the company for $787 million in 2023, while Newsmax settled its defamation case for $67 million.

Leiendecker set election officials on edge in his Oct. 9 press release announcing his surprise purchase, which promised “compliance with President Trump’s executive order” on elections, and the Trump-aligned Logan Circle Group that helped craft the statement peppered the news with MAGA-friendly language about "hand-marked paper ballots" and “third-party auditing."

“The owner’s comment about making sure people use paper ballots did give me pause,” said Barb Byrum, the Democratic election clerk for Lansing, Michigan. “That is a typical election conspiracy theorist talking point. As someone who works in the election space, he should know that as well.”

Byrum, who is running for the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s secretary of state race next year, said she has not yet heard from Leiendecker, who has already met with about 80 percent of the company's customers, but some election experts have been pleased by what they've seen from his stewardship despite the "incredibly clumsy" rebrand.

“Folks on the left, who worry that MAGA now owns our elections, should not be worried, and folks on the right, who think this fixes everything because Dominion was changing outcomes of elections, they’re wrong, too," said David Becker, an elections expert who advises officials from both parties.

Leiendecker has promised to keep existing Dominion employees on the job, which has angered election deniers calling for a purge, and the company has assured election officials they intend to continue using the same product and to expect "no changes" despite new ownership.

“Their message was, ‘It’s the same team, same group, same contacts,’” said Zach Manifold, the nonpartisan elections supervisor for Gwinnett County, Georgia. “That’s what I heard from Scott, too. One of the things he said to me was that the staff that was at Dominion were really great.”

That hasn't stopped critics on both sides from scrutinizing the sale, with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) calling on officials to stop using Dominion equipment and GOP election activist Cleta Mitchell complaining that Leiendecker hasn't returned defamation settlement money or invited conservatives to audit the company's machines.

“It is all a ruse," Mitchell posted on X. "All of it."

Leiendecker previously founded KNOWiNK, which pioneered the use of iPads to check in voters and verify their registration status, and election officials praised his work.

“Scott finds innovative solutions to issues,” said Ben Borgmeyer, the Democratic co-director of the St. Louis County election board. “We use KNOWiNK products every day. They’re a partner we trust. Their Poll Pad is now ubiquitous across the face of US elections. Almost everyone uses it.”

There are still fears that Trump could pressure Leiendecker to use his assets to benefit MAGA allies, but industry insiders say there are real limitations to what he could do – even if he wanted to weaponize the company.

“I don’t think a MAGA takeover is even possible,” a former senior Dominion official, who left years before it was sold. “Vendors don’t run elections. It’s run by county clerks and secretaries of state. Vendors only supply the equipment. They have no influence over the election results.”