Scoop: Dominion Voting sold to company run by ex-GOP election official

Zoom in: Liberty Vote purchased Canada-based Dominion for an undisclosed sum, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

• Liberty is a new company owned by Scott Leiendecker, who in 2011 created a software program focused on enabling election workers to verify voters and check them in at polling locations.
• According to Leiendecker's LinkedIn page, his company KNOWiNK has more than 150 employees and $55 million in annual revenue.
• The company says its systems are used by election officials in more than a third of U.S. states and describes itself as the "nation's leading provider of electronic poll books."

Zoom out: Leiendecker also has deep Republican connections.

• Matt Blunt, who was then Missouri's Republican secretary of state, appointed Leiendecker to a role investigating St. Louis' elections administration after the 2000 election.
• As governor, Blunt later appointed Leiendecker to be St. Louis' Republican election director.

Ed Martin, a loyal Trump surrogate, was St. Louis' Board of Elections' chair when Leiendecker was the city's election director.

• As interim U.S. attorney for D.C. in Trump's current administration, Martin demoted prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases, pursued critics of Elon Musk's DOGE operation, and threatened Wikipedia over what he called biased "propaganda."

Liberty Vote officials describe Leiendecker as a neutral arbiter.

• They provided to Axios a supportive statement from Nevada's Democratic secretary of state, Cisco Aguilar, who called Leiendecker "open, honest and transparent."

Liberty does appear to be aligning itself with Trump's vision for a paper ballot-centered election system.

• For years Trump has cast doubt on the nation's election system, railing against voting machines, questioning their accuracy and calling for a transition to same-day, in-person voting using paper ballots.
• Election officials nationwide have said that their electronic voting systems are secure, and that paper-ballot systems would result in longer waits for results without enhancing security.

What they're saying: Leiendecker told Axios in a statement that his company is "committed to delivering election technology that prioritizes paper-based transparency, security and simplicity so that voters can be assured that every ballot is filled-in accurately and fairly counted."

• "Liberty Vote signals a new chapter for American elections — one where trust is rebuilt from the ground up," he said.
• A Liberty representative said the organization will engage in a "top-down" review of Dominion's equipment ahead of next year's midterm elections, and that it would "rebuild or retire" machines as needed.

• States and localities that have used Dominion equipment in past elections now will have to decide whether to use Liberty's system in the future.

A Dominion representative referred questions about the acquisition to Liberty officials.

Flashback: Trump and his allies falsely accused Dominion of engaging in a plot to steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

• Dominion later sued Fox News, whose on-air personalities had echoed Trump's claims, for defamation. Fox settled the case in 2023, and paid Dominion $787.5 million.
• In August, Newsmax agreed to pay Dominion $67 million to settle a similar lawsuit.
• Even so, Dominion CEO John Poulos has said the attacks against his company severely damaged its reputation and jeopardized its future.

The intrigue: As part of its deal with Dominion, Liberty officials asked Dominion to settle several other defamation lawsuits against Trump allies who attacked the company over the 2020 election results.

• In recent weeks, Dominion has reached undisclosed settlements with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and One America News Network.
• Dominion had sued Giuliani and Powell for $1.3 billion each. It had sued OANN for $1.6 billion.

Go deeper: Staple Street Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, has had a controlling interest in Dominion since 2018.

• A Liberty official said regulatory approval wouldn't be needed in its acquisition of Dominion.

This story has been updated to describe the relationship between Liberty Vote and KNOWiNK.