Does George Soros own voting machines in US 2018 Midterms? Fact Check

Another old conspiracy type rumour has resurfaced during the run-up to the 2018 Midterm elections across the United States.

On November 6th 2018, US voters will elect 35 Senators and 435 House Representatives across every state in what is being described as a good barometer on the country’s perception of Donald Trump’s performance as president so far.

However the often contentious elections are also the reason why a lot of old misinformation and conspiracy theories have managed to find new legs.

One such example is the claim that Democratic donor George Soros – a frequent target of conspiracy theorists – owns many of the voting machines that will be used by voters across the United States, and as such as rigged them to favour Democratic nominees. Example below.

On election day, if your voting machine is a SmartMatic brand, DEMAND a paper ballot. George Soro’s now owns SmartMatic. You have the right to require a paper ballot, and under FEDERAL LAW the polling place MUST provide one for you. Don’t throw your vote away.
Following states have SmartMatic voting machines: Arizona, COlorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin

The increased frequency of electronic voting replacing traditional paper ballots serves as an easy target for conspiracy minded folk to point the finger and vaguely claim conspiracy, without offering any proof to back-up their claims.

This theory first spread back during the 2012 presidential elections, and also surfaced again four years later during the 2016 presidential elections (which we discussed here) and now is out for its third outing, with very little of its claims changed. And that means yes, it is still entirely false.

Does George Soros own (or have a stake) in Smartmatic?

No. Not at all. At some point a number of years ago, conspiracy theorists found a wholly unconvincing link between the CEO of Smartmatic, Mark Malloch-Brown, and George Soros, namely that amongst the many non-profit boards that Malloch-Brown was a member of, one was a board founded by Soros.

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Other than that questionable “link”, there is nothing that links Soros to Smartmatic. He does not own it, has any stake in it, nor provides any services related to it.

Smartmatic has addressed these rumours on their website –

• Smartmatic is 100% privately owned. Smartmatic has no ties to political parties or groups in any country and abides by a stringent code of ethics that forbids the company to ever donate to any political campaigns of any kind.
• Our headquarters were based in Florida for many years, but have since moved to London to service its global client base.
• George Soros does not have and has never had any ownership stake in Smartmatic.

Does Smartmatic have machines in 16 states?

This exact claim was spread in 2016, and it was false then, since Smartmatic didn’t provide any machines whatsoever during the 2016 presidential elections. From what we can determine, little has changed in the last two years. Smartmatic did announce that they agreed a contract with the County of Los Angeles to become their prime contractor for voting solutions, but this doesn’t appear to begin until the 2020 US elections.

As such, this hoax is as false now as it was in 2012 and 2016.