Fact-check: Did the U.S. military seize servers tied to Dominion Election Systems


By Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact.com
Posted Nov 18, 2020 at 9:33 AM
YouTube videos: The U.S. military seized servers in Germany tied to Dominion Election Systems.

PolitiFact’s ruling: Pants on Fire

Here’s why: Voting equipment company Dominion Voting Systems has been at the center of unfounded conspiracy theories — many spread by President Donald Trump — that claim Democrats committed voter fraud and stole the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

There’s no evidence that Dominion’s systems were used nefariously in the election, but false claims about the company keep coming.

Posts circulating online claim that the U.S. military raided the Spanish election software company Scytl in Germany and seized its servers for evidence of manipulation in the 2020 U.S. elections. Some posts claim the servers have ties to Dominion.

This is false. Scytl said in a statement that the U.S. military hasn’t seized anything and that it doesn’t have offices in Germany. The U.S. Army, which was identified in some posts as the military branch supposedly involved, denied to the Associated Press that such an event took place.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The rumor was fueled by an article on a website called “GreatGameIndia” titled “INTEL: US Military Raided Scytl Servers in Germany For Evidence After Vote Switching Scandal.” It said, “votes cast by Americans in 2020 US election were counted by a bankrupt Spanish company Scytl in Spain.”

Sources
YouTube video, Nov. 14

PolitiFact, Trump’s tweet about 2.7 million deleted votes is baseless, Nov. 12, 2020

PolitiFact, Says Dominion Voting System flipped votes to Joe Biden in states where Trump is bringing legal challenges., Nov. 13, 2020

Scytl, Fact Checking Regarding US Elections: Debunking Fake News, Nov. 13, 2020

Scytl, US Elections, Accessed Nov. 17, 2020

Dominion Voting, SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: FACTS & RUMORS, Updated Nov. 17, 2020

Associated Press, False reports claim election servers were seized in Germany, Nov. 15, 2020

Reuters, Fact check: The U.S. military has not seized election servers in Germany, Nov. 16, 2020

Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, JOINT STATEMENT FROM ELECTIONS INFRASTRUCTURE GOVERNMENT COORDINATING COUNCIL & THE ELECTION INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR COORDINATING EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES, Nov. 12, 2020

The story pointed to comments made by U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, who appeared on conservative TV channel Newsmax. A clip of the interview shows Gohmert saying that he was told there was “a tweet in German from Germany that the U.S. Army had gone in and seized the Syctl server.”

The clip’s description on YouTube reads: “People on the ground in Germany report that Scytl, which hosting YOUR elections data Improperly through Spain, was raided by a large US ARMY force & their Servers were Seized in Frankfurt.”

An Army spokesperson told the AP over the weekend that the claims in the posts are false.

Scytl, a software company based in Barcelona, has eight offices around the world but none in Germany, according to its website. It has delivered election modernization projects for U.S. elections since 2008.

But none of these projects involve tallying votes, the company said. The services include online initiatives like election worker training, electronic ballot delivery and real-time, visual representation of votes.

In a statement rejecting the claims, Scytl said that its technologies for the U.S. are hosted and managed domestically by a Tampa-based subsidiary, SOE Software, and that it does not provide any voting machines in the U.S. or online voting services for U.S. elections.

“We do not have servers or offices in Frankfurt,” the company added. “The US army has not seized anything from Scytl in Barcelona, Frankfurt or anywhere else.”


Scytl and Dominion share no ties, according to statements from both companies.

The federal Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council Executive Committee and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council said in a joint statement that the election was the most secure in U.S. history and that there is “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

Our ruling

Social media users are sharing articles and videos claiming that the U.S. military seized Scytl servers in Germany and that the company has ties to Dominion Voting Systems.

The Army and Scytl said the claim is false, and the company has no offices in Germany or connection to Dominion.

We rate this Pants on Fire!

PolitiFact Texas is a partnership of the Austin American-Statesman, Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News to help you find the truth in Texas politics.

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