Name: U.S. Army Didn't Seize Election Servers in Germany - FactCheck.org
Brand: factcheck.org
SKU: factcheck-org-19
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

U.S. Army Didn't Seize Election Servers in Germany - FactCheck.org

preview

Quick TakeA congressman and conservative news outlets are spreading the baseless claim that the U.S. Army seized an election software company’s server in Frankfurt, Germany, that could supposedly prove there was fraud in the 2020 election. There was no such seizure — and the company doesn’t even have a server in Frankfurt.Full StoryBogus claims about voter fraud in the U.S. election have gone international.A falsehood that the U.S. Army seized a computer server in Frankfurt, Germany, has been circulating on social media. This server could supposedly prove that votes for President Donald Trump were switched in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.But the Army has conducted no such raid, and the company supposedly involved doesn’t have offices in Frankfurt and wouldn’t have had that kind of information.Still, the falsehood has been spread by , of Texas, and the two conservative TV news outlets recently by President Donald Trump — and .Gohmert first made the claim during a video call on Facebook on Nov. 12 entitled “Global Prayer For US Election Integrity.” The host of the call, conservative evangelical leader , began by referencing at least two other election-related conspiracy theories. One is based on the idea that there is a secret supercomputer called “Hammer” that switched votes away from Trump. That’s total as we . The other theory claims the voting machine manufacturer Dominion was involved in switching votes. That’s not true either, although Trump has given the claim widespread attention by about it. We about that, too.Gohmert’s claim appears to be related to both of those debunked theories.“I had information from some of our former intel people that there was extremely compelling evidence that could be gleaned from Scytl,” Gohmert said on the call, referring to the . He claimed Scytl had offices in Frankfurt and “was responsible for aggregating all the information from all the [voting] machines and whatnot… that information as to how many votes were switched from Republican for Democrat would have been easily established from the information that Scytl gathered.”But that’s not what Scytl does in the U.S. We’ll explain more on that later.Gohmert went on to say, “It turns out, I don’t know the truth, I know that there was a German tweet in German saying that on Monday, U.S. Army forces went into Scytl and grabbed their server. There are some that believe this is the U.S. intelligence that manipulated all this in order to cover their own rear ends.”There is no evidence to support that claim. The Army has that it conducted no such raid, and Gohmert’s office didn’t respond to a request for more information. It’s worth noting that Gohmert didn’t include that claim in a he signed on Nov. 13 with eight other congressmen asking the attorney general to investigate Scytl.Despite a lack of evidence, the suggestion that there was a raid and a seized server has appeared on , &nbsp;and . Some of those posts an electoral map shown on OAN that supposedly reflects the results on the seized server. OAN attributed the to Manga Anantatmula, a in Virginia who didn’t respond to our request for comment. The map shows Trump winning 410 electoral votes, including California’s 55 electoral votes. Biden had a 29% lead over Trump in California as of Nov. 19, the secretary of state’s unofficial count.Also, Scytl doesn’t have offices in Frankfurt. The company, which is based in , has a U.S. subsidiary that handled all of its U.S. election work in 2020, according to a it posted in response to the viral claims.“We do not tabulate, tally or count votes in the US. We do not provide voting machines in the US. We did not provide online voting to US jurisdictions for the US elections. We do not have servers or offices in Frankfurt. The US army has not seized anything from Scytl in Barcelona, Frankfurt or anywhere else,” the fact sheet said.The company also described the kind of work that it did conduct in the 2020 election. That work fell into four categories: visual displays of independently counted votes on election night, called election night reporting systems; electronic ballot delivery systems for overseas military voters; online training for election workers; and websites with information for voters on where and how they could vote and what kind of identification they may need to bring to the polls.The first two categories may be the source of some of the false claims&nbsp;about Scytl’s role in the election.The company explained that its election night reporting systems are online displays for vote tallies that have been counted by local election officials. The vote counting is done on equipment that’s unrelated to Scytl. Once election officials tabulate the votes, they upload the results to Scytl’s system, which then displays them online. The servers that run it are based in the U.S. “Scytl does NOT tabulate, tally or count any votes,” the company wrote.Similarly, the electronic ballot delivery system offered by the company is an online platform tailored to the state that uses it. “Each state has different laws and regulations regarding who can request their ballot through this system, and how that ballot can be returned,” the company explained. The system does not allow online voting and it does not count votes. The servers that run it are in the U.S.According to another from the company, 95 of the in the U.S. used its election night reporting system to display the results in their counties online and seven states used it to provide statewide results. Three states used Scytl’s electronic ballot delivery system in the 2020 election.Scytl is also among the 25 original members of the , which with federal and state agencies to keep elections secure.So, there’s no evidence that the U.S. Army seized a server from Scytl that would prove election fraud. In fact, both the Army and Scytl have said that’s not true.This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Clickfor more.SourcesSchindler, Adam. “.” Facebook. 12 Nov 2020.Fichera, Angelo and Saranac Hale Spencer. “.” FactCheck.org. 13 Nov 2020.Rieder, Rem. “.” FactCheck.org. 13 Nov 2020.Joffe-Block, Jude. “.” Associated Press. 15 Nov 2020.Gohmert, Louie, et al. . 13 Nov 2020.“.” Scytl. 13 Nov 2020.“.” Scytl. 10 Nov 2020.“.” Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.15 Feb 2018.“.” Congressional Research Service. 5 Mar 2020.Ask SciCheckQ. Are vaccinated and boosted people more susceptible to infection or disease with the omicron variant than unvaccinated people?A. No. Getting vaccinated increases your protection against COVID-19. Sometimes, certain raw data can suggest otherwise, but that information cannot be used to determine how well a vaccine works.Have a question?

Quick TakeA congressman and conservative news outlets are spreading the baseless claim that the U.S. Army seized an election software company’s server in Frankfurt, Germany, that could supposedly prove there was fraud in the 2020 election. There was no such seizure — and the company doesn’t even have a server in Frankfurt.Full StoryBogus claims about voter fraud in the U.S. election have gone international.A falsehood that the U.S. Army seized a computer server in Frankfurt, Germany, has been circulating on social media. This server could supposedly prove that votes for President Donald...

public

https://www.factcheck.org/author/saranac-hale-spencer/

Saranac Hale Spencer

FactCheck.org is a nonprofit website that describes itself as a "consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics". It is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation.

U.S. Army Didn't Seize Election Servers in Germany - FactCheck.org

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS