Former Republican operative and Knowink founder Scott Leiendecker has finalized the acquisition of Dominion Voting Systems, rebranding the election technology giant as Liberty Vote. The move, described by the company as a “bold and historic” effort to restore election integrity, seeks to distance the infrastructure provider from years of unsubstantiated claims regarding the 2020 presidential election while pivoting toward a 100% American-owned business model.
A Strategic Shift to Domestic Sovereignty
The newly formed Liberty Vote intends to overhaul the company’s operational DNA by prioritizing hand-marked paper ballots and “facilitating third-party auditing.” Central to Leiendecker’s vision is a commitment to domestic staffing and software development. Historically, Dominion—headquartered in Colorado and Canada—has maintained significant development hubs in Toronto and Belgrade, Serbia. LinkedIn data reveals a substantial workforce of programmers in Serbia, a point of contention for critics of foreign-developed election code.
While a Liberty official confirmed to WIRED that Leiendecker is committed to “100 percent domestic staffing,” questions remain regarding the logistical feasibility of this transition. It remains unclear if the company will rewrite hundreds of thousands of lines of existing code or attempt to relocate its international workforce to the United States. Sources suggest that despite the “American-owned” branding, the company will maintain a presence in Canada, where its hardware is utilized nationwide.
Expert Skepticism Over Security Promises
Election integrity advocates have raised concerns that the focus on domestic-only workers may be a “red herring” rather than a legitimate security upgrade. Philip Stark, a professor of statistics at UC Berkeley, argues that geography does not inherently guarantee honesty. “Programmers based in the US also may be interested in undermining or altering election integrity,” Stark told WIRED, noting that a developer’s location is not a proxy for system security.
Furthermore, Liberty Vote’s plan to conduct a “top-to-bottom” independent review of its software before the 2026 midterms faces significant hurdles. Experts warn that the timeline for designing, testing, and certifying new voting equipment is prohibitively tight. Federal and state certification processes are notoriously slow and expensive, and many jurisdictions legally prohibit system updates too close to an election cycle.
Consolidating the Voting Machine Industry
The acquisition further consolidates an already shrinking market. For two decades, the U.S. voting machine industry has been dominated by a “Big Three”: Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Dominion (now Liberty Vote), and Hart InterCivic. Leiendecker’s portfolio now includes equipment used in over half of U.S. states. The synergy between Knowink’s electronic poll books—used in 29 states—and Dominion’s tabulation hardware gives Leiendecker control over the entire election lifecycle in numerous jurisdictions, including the critical swing state of Georgia.
The financial terms of the deal remain private, though Leiendecker reportedly financed the acquisition personally. While Dominion was valued at approximately $80 million in 2018, later estimates suggested the firm could have been worth over $700 million prior to the reputational damage caused by post-2020 defamation.
Resolving Legal Liabilities
As a prerequisite for the acquisition, several high-profile defamation lawsuits were settled. Dominion recently reached undisclosed agreements with One America News (OAN) and former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. These follow massive settlements with Fox News ($787.5 million) and Newsmax ($67 million). While some litigation remains pending—specifically against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne—Liberty officials indicate that the company is moving to resolve all remaining legal entanglements.
The Future of Paper Ballots and BMDs
Leiendecker has signaled alignment with a “paper ballot focus,” echoing calls for voter-verifiable records. This includes a push away from ballots that rely on non-human-readable QR codes or barcodes for tabulation. Currently, Dominion’s ImageCast X ballot-marking devices (BMDs) are used across 15 states, producing ballots that scanners read via QR codes. Activists on both sides of the aisle have long criticized these systems, arguing that they introduce a “black box” element where the voter cannot truly verify what the scanner is recording.
While Leiendecker’s ties to the Republican Party have sparked scrutiny, his professional history suggests a pragmatic approach to administration. During his tenure as the Republican director of the St. Louis City Board of Election Commissioners, he was praised by both parties for modernizing procedures and famously rebuffed “stolen election” claims made by his former associates in 2010, asserting there were “no shenanigans” in the process.
