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Elon Musk echoes Trump's voting machine conspiracy theories, pushes for paper ballots: 'Just too easy to hack'

Elon Musk echoes Trump's voting machine conspiracy theories, pushes for paper ballots: 'Just too easy to hack'

Elon Musk

Elon Musk, at a town hall hosted by America PAC in Pennsylvania on Saturday (Oct 19), echoed former president Donald Trump's unfounded conspiracy theories regarding voting machines and their potential to rig elections, calling for paper ballots.

Know a lot about computers: Musk

Despite numerous debunking of such claims, Musk asserted, "I'm a technologist, I know a lot about computers…And I'm like, the last thing I would do is trust a computer program, because it's just too easy to hack".

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Musk, as per ABC News, specifically mentioned Dominion Voting Systems, which recently settled a $787 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News for spreading false claims about its role in the 2020 election.

He linked Dominion to electoral losses for Republicans in Philadelphia and Arizona, suggesting it was "weird" that certain areas used these voting machines while others did not.

"There's always a sort of question of like, say, the Dominion voting machines. It is weird that the, you know, I think they're used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa County, but not in a lot of other places," said the Tesla CEO.

"Doesn't that seem like a heck of a coincidence?" he asked.

He concluded by advocating for a shift to exclusively using paper ballots. "Only do paper ballots, hand-counted," said Musk.

His comments come amid growing political involvement, having previously shown strong support for former President Donald Trump, including substantial financial contributions to his political action committee.

Dominion debunks Musk's statements

Dominion quickly rebutted Musk's assertions, clarifying that their machines do not operate in Philadelphia and that most jurisdictions already use paper ballots.

A spokesperson of the company stated, "Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion's voting systems are already based on voter verified paper ballots. Fact: Hand counts and audits of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. They are verifiable facts."

Maricopa County officials also confirmed the accuracy of their voting machines, noting that a hand count after the election "found zero variances between hand count results and the Dominion tabulation equipment."

(With inputs from agencies)

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Moohita Kaur Garg

Moohita Kaur Garg is a journalist and Senior Sub-Editor at WION News with five years of experience covering the volatile intersections of geopolitics and global security. She has e...Read More