BOCA RATON, Fla. – The head of an electronic voting company that's being targeted by allies of President Donald Trump said baseless claims that it helped flip the 2020 election for Joe Biden threaten to undermine Americans’ faith in democracy.
The chief executive of Florida-based Smartmatic said in a statement Monday that the baseless claims will hurt the company's bottom line.
Starting last week, the company sent letters to Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani, Fox News, Newsmax, One America News Network and others, demanding a complete retraction.
Trump’s allies have maintained that software developed by Smartmatic altered the 2020 election results. Fact-checkers have debunked the far-fetched claims, while Trump’s own attorney general and cybersecurity officials have found no evidence of voter fraud.
Smartmatic says the organizations and individuals in question could have easily discovered the falsity of the statements and implications made about the company by investigating their statements before publishing or speaking.
“They have no evidence to support their attacks on Smartmatic because there is no evidence. This campaign was designed to defame Smartmatic and undermine legitimately conducted elections,” said Antonio Mugica, CEO of Smartmatic. “Our efforts are more than just about Smartmatic or any other company. This campaign is an attack on election systems and election workers in an effort to depress confidence in future elections and potentially counter the will of the voters, not just here, but in democracies around the world.”
Though Smartmatic has designed and implemented secure election technologies in 25 countries since 2000, the company says its only involvement in the U.S. in the 2020 election was as the manufacturing partner, system integrator, and software developer for Los Angeles County’s publicly owned voting system.
In its demand letters, Smartmatic says it informed the opposing organizations that it’s reserving all its legal rights and remedies, including its right to pursue defamation and disparagement claims.
